Speak of the Devil impresses in Churchill Distaff Turf Mile victory

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Speak of the Devil was making her U.S. debut in the Grade 2, $500,000 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile on Saturday at Churchill Downs, and got a baptism by fire with the huge crowd continuing to file into the track. Exiting the tunnel from the paddock, the mare jumped, then bolted up the track. She was quickly brought to hand by jockey Flavien Prat and an outrider, and rejoined the post parade without incident.

Just a few minutes later, Speak of the Devil unleashed a slingshot move on the far turn that made her pre-race bolt look like a gentle canter. She swiftly reeled in her stablemate In Italian and, despite drifting wide in the stretch, was a handy 2 3/4-length winner.

"In the paddock, she acted pretty good, but training in the mornings here Derby week, I'd say she got a little on the aggressive side," said Chad Brown, who trains both of the top two finishers for Peter Brant. "She didn't see much of that down at [Payson Park in Florida], it's a very rural area down there. Definitely woke her up a little bit. I'm proud of the way she did handle it. The post parade there, it seemed like it was a lot for her, and Flavien did a good job to get her settled down immediately."

Speak of the Devil ($4.20), a 5-year-old Wootton Bassett mare, won five of her first 15 starts while racing in her native France. That included listed stakes wins in the Prix Isola Bella, Prix Tantieme, and Prix de La Calonne last year, and the Prix de Saint-Cyr in 2020. She also was multiple group stakes-placed, including a runner-up effort in the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in 2020, beaten a nose, and a third in the Group 1 Prix Rothschild last year, beaten just a head.

:: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures

Brown received Speak of the Devil in Florida late last year and turned her out at Payson Park to allow her to recover from the trip and a busy 2021 campaign, and to acclimate. He said he slowly eased her into a training pattern and in recent months and weeks he was pleased with her progression.

"Every work, she continued to train better and better," Brown said. "Every week I just couldn't believe the coat on her and the weight on her. She looked like a tiger when we took her off the van here."

That progression gave Brown a nice problem to have, as, looking for a place to begin her campaign, he settled on this one-mile race on the Churchill turf. Already ticketed for the spot was In Italian, coming off a front-running victory in the Grade 3 Honey Fox Stakes in March at Gulfstream Park.

"I hated to run them against each other . . . But looking for a mile turf stake right now, there wasn't many options," Brown said. "We had the place covered either way.

"We knew that if there was no speed in the race, we had it covered on the front with In Italian, a confirmed front-runner with quality, and then Speak of the Devil, knowing first time in the country she was probably going to fall back a bit out of the gate and come with one run, it seemed like a good one-two punch."

That was exactly how things worked out. In Italian broke alertly and took an unchallenged lead, cruising happily through early splits of 24.86 seconds for the quarter and 49.70 for the half on a turf course rated firm. Speak of the Devil and Prat were last of the six after that half, about seven lengths off the lead of her stablemate. Around the far turn, Prat gave Speak of the Devil her cue, and she responded readily with a sharp blitz to circle the field in the five path, a move that brought her to the throatlatch of her stablemate at the quarter pole. In Italian did dig in, but Speak of the Devil easily had her measure.

“As soon as I called on her, she cut really well,” Prat said.

The final time was 1:37.47 for the mile. Speak of the Devil was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 98.

In Italian was easily best of the rest, holding second by three lengths over Wakanaka. Lady Speightspeare, Flower Point, and Abscond rounded out the order of finish.

The race was the first of seven consecutive undercard stakes leading up to the Kentucky Derby, set for just before 7 p.m.