Swiss Skydiver shakes the rust off in first work of 2021

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The girls from trainer Ken McPeek’s barn were out in full force Friday morning at Gulfstream Park, led by the queen of them all, the 2020 3-year-old filly champion, Swiss Skydiver.

Hitting the work tab for the first time since her disappointing seventh-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Swiss Skydiver breezed an easy three furlongs in 37.08 seconds alongside her Grade 2-winning and Grade 1-placed stablemate Envoutante shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Friday. Swiss Skydiver was hard held wanting to do plenty more coming to the wire, the team galloping out with excellent energy, a half-mile in 50.99 before easing up five-eighths in 1:05.

“I let her run through the lane last week. This one was a little more of a leg-stretcher for her this morning,” said McPeek, who currently has 40 horses stabled at Gulfstream Park. “She’ll come back and go a half-mile next Thursday and will be on a six-day work schedule for now. When she begins to really start tugging, gets a little closer, then we’ll sit down and try to figure out where and when we might bring her back.”

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Joining Swiss Skydiver and Envoutante on Friday’s tab were stablemates Simply Ravishing and Crazy Beautiful, the respective one-two finishers in the Grade 1 Alcibides last fall at Keeneland. The two fillies breezed four furlongs in company in 48.90 shortly after the renovation break, completing their final quarters in 23.60 while going relatively easy throughout. They were the first official works for the pair in 2021, both idle since finishing fourth and sixth, respectively, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Stakes winner Oliviaofthedesert, another of the promising 3-year-old fillies in McPeek’s potent stable, turned in the bullet three-furlong work here Friday, completing the distance in 35.81 in what was also her first breeze of the new year.

“I gave all of these fillies a little bit of a break at the end of last year,” said McPeek. “I wish they had a filly-and-mare stakes around two turns here on the main track later in the meet, for both Swiss Skydiver and Envoutante, but they don’t as far as I can see. So unless they put something up, I guess I’ll have to get them ready here and then ship out of town to run.”

Swiss Skydiver won five of 10 starts and earned nearly $1.8 million for owner Peter Callahan in 2021. Her two most important victories came in the Grade 1 Alabama and against males in the Preakness when she upset ultimate Horse of the Year Authentic at Pimlico. Swiss Skydiver also finished second in the Kentucky Oaks and second in the Blue Grass during the course of her award-winning 3-year-old campaign.

‘“She’s been amazing right along,” said McPeek. “I’m just keeping my fingers crossed she can do it again against older horses this year.”