Vous has big shot to end two-year victory drought

MIAMI - As a 2-year-old, Vous appeared to be a turf horse with unlimited potential after winning the Hollywood Wildcat Stakes at Calder in her final start of the season. Vous returns here Thursday as a multiple graded-stakes-placed filly with

nearly $225,000 in her bank account but, incredibly, still in search of her first win since she captured the Hollywood Wildcat two years ago.

Despite her long victory drought, Vous figures to be favored against seven other fillies and mares in Thursday's $26,000 feature. The race will be decided at 1 1/16 miles on the turf under optional claiming and second-level allowance conditions.

Vous nearly got back on the winning track in her last start when she rallied off a very slow pace before falling a neck short facing similar competition at Aqueduct. Earlier this season, Vous, a daughter of Wild Rush, finished third in Gulfstream Park's Grade 3 The Very One Handicap and was beaten only a length in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf. At 3, she finished third in the Grade 3 Sands Point Handicap.

"It's hard to believe she's still eligible for this condition," said Tim Hills, who trains Vous for the Tee-N-Jay Farm. "But she has had a lot of bad luck during the past two years, partly because she's such a big horse that if she gets stopped in a race it takes her a long time to get rolling again. I freshened her up this spring and summer, she's come back nicely, and is doing very well coming into this race."

Javier Castellano, who was aboard Vous for her near-miss in New York last month, will have the assignment again on Thursday.

Vous may have gotten lucky at the post position draw with perhaps her two chief rivals, Bobcat Greeley and Tale of Freedom, stuck on the also-eligible list. The pair finished second and third, respectively, behind the red-hot Kate Princess under similar conditions earlier this month.

Should Bobcat Greeley or Tale of Freedom not draw in, Vous's main opposition could come from either Canadian invader Seanachai or the Brazilian-bred Programa Do Faxina.

Seanachai has won two of her last three starts on turf, including an 1 3/8-mile entry-level allowance race at Woodbine prior to shipping south for the winter.

Programa Do Faxina has not started since finishing a wide-running third in her first try against second-level allowance horses at Laurel on Sept. 30.