Student Body faces tough crowd in Dream Supreme

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Dream Pauline, Awestruck, and Student Body made the program for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup card at Churchill Downs. They are just unlikely to make the starting gate.

Cross-entered in local races over the weekend, they are instead expected for Sunday’s $100,000 Dream Supreme Stakes at Churchill Downs – with Awestruck and Student Body landing there by the choice of their connections, and Dream Pauline because it ended up being her only weekend racing option. An alternate for Saturday’s Filly and Mare Sprint, she did not draw into that race.

Although Awestruck and Student Body had not been officially scratched by early Friday morning from Saturday’s Grade 2 Chilukki, they are running in Sunday’s Dream Supreme, their trainers said.

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The Dream Supreme is loaded for an ungraded race with a $100,000 purse. Of the eight entrants, four are stakes winners, including Vertical Oak and Lucy N Ethel, who each won the Grade 2 Prioress, with Vertical Oak doing so in 2017, and Lucy N Ethel in 2016.

For Student Body, the Dream Supreme is a proving ground. Though she has shown flashes of ability over her six-race career, she has not yet produced in a stakes race. She finished fifth behind Vertical Oak in last summer’s Prioress and was eighth in the Dogwood Stakes at Churchill last September.

Trainer Chris Davis questions whether either loss is representative for Student Body. He hopes her most recent start is more in line with what she can do. Student Body sped 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15.56 after setting splits of 21.24 seconds and a 43.85, winning an optional-claiming race by 9 3/4 lengths on Sept. 20 at Arlington Park.

“I have extremely high hopes for her,” Davis said. “I think she’s every bit a graded stakes horse in the making.”

A 10-1 chance on the morning line as she makes her second start off a year-long layoff, Student Body returns to race over a Churchill Downs strip over which she won her debut in June of last year. Sophie Doyle rides the filly, a 4-year-old daughter of Colonel John owned by Gary Broad.

While Student Body and Dream Pauline have exhibited the ability to run quickly in maiden and allowance company, Vertical Oak, the 2-1 morning-line favorite, has done so in stakes. Skilled over the six-furlong distance of the Dream Supreme, she has won from an up-close or rallying position. That versatility should serve her well in a race that drew several fillies who mostly want the early lead.