Twenty Carat captures stakes, dirt debut in Beaumont

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Twenty Carat delivered a sparkling performance in her stakes debut to win the Grade 3, $150,000 Beaumont Stakes on Friday at Keeneland, a victory that is likely to propel her onto a bigger stage at the end of this month.

Trainer Wesley Ward, who won a pair of stakes on opening day, said immediately post-race that Twenty Carat is under strong consideration for the Grade 2, $200,000 Eight Belles Stakes, at the same seven-furlong distance of the Beaumont, on the Kentucky Oaks undercard on April 30 at Churchill Downs. Ward added that Goncalo Torrealba of Three Chimneys Farm, which owns the Into Mischief filly, would give some thought to the Oaks itself, provided his homebred can get in with the 10 qualifying points she earned winning the Beaumont.

"It' going to be a decision with him and his team," Ward said. "But either way, the next few days, we'll make a decision."

Twenty Carat is not a current Oaks nominee; she can still be made a late nominee by April 10, or can be supplemented to the field for a hefty fee at entry time. However, the Oaks is limited to 14 starters based on points earned in designated races. The current cutoff horse on the leaderboard holds 20 points. With four major prep races on Saturday awarding points on a 100-40-20-10 scale, that mark figures to rise.

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Regardless of her next step, the lightly-raced Twenty Carat ($9) took a big step forward in the Beaumont. The filly crossed the line first in her debut going 6 1/2 furlongs in January at Turfway Park; however, she was disqualified for interference. The filly who was put up, Wait for Nairobi, subsequently won the Cincinnati Trophy at Turfway. Twenty Carat proceeded to another Turfway maiden at the same distance, and won by a clear 7 3/4 lengths. Ward has polished her in the interim with in-company works at his Keeneland base with Kimari, an older stakes performer who runs in Saturday's Grade 1 Madison Stakes at Keeneland.

The Beaumont “was the spot that kind of fell into place for me early on with her," Ward said. "I thought about running her a mile when she was disqualified. And then I wanted to hopefully get the win out of the way, which she did the second time, convincingly. Julio Garcia's been breezing her, in company actually with Kimari. We knew we had the horse, we just needed to see it in the afternoon on the dirt."

Twenty Carat, who broke from the outside post in the field of seven, was away well under Luis Saez and was able to sit a straightforward stalking trip. My Girl Red, breaking from the rail while making her first start since September, was pressured by Farsighted through an opening quarter-mile in 22.18 seconds, and the half in 44.79, with Twenty Carat in the clear on the outside and kindly waiting for her cue. Meanwhile, favored Slumber Party, coming off a sharp debut win at Gulfstream and extremely eager in the warm-up, was surprisingly void of early speed, without incident.

Saez gave Twenty Carat her cue near the five-sixteenths pole, and she responded readily to forge her way to the lead. She kicked clear in upper stretch and continued on for a handy 1 1/2-length win. She completed the seven furlongs on the fast main track in 1:26.04.

Slumber Party, briefly shuffled back behind the tiring pacesetters on the far turn, ran on well to be second by 1 1/2 lengths over Amalfi Princess in just her second career start.

"I have mixed emotions, because I am disappointed because I thought we brought a top-notch filly," trainer Kelly Breen said, "She ran hard, she ran great, but maybe not the trip I had foreseen. If she got out [front] early and not been blocked a little bit, maybe the outcome would have been different. The whole field were a bunch of nice horses."