Well-bred filly Playback makes debut at Ellis

Playback, the first foal out of Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Blue Prize, makes her debut on Friday at Ellis Park. The $120,000 maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies has drawn a full field of 12, plus an also-eligible.

Playback, by leading sire Into Mischief, will race as a homebred for Larry Best’s OXO Equine, which bought Blue Prize for $5 million out of the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall selected mixed sale. The mare was a Group 1 winner in her native Argentina before winning six graded stakes in the United States, including the 2019 Distaff and two editions of the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland.

Playback is coming off a bullet five-furlong work at the Thoroughbred Center for Paulo Lobo.

Playback is the second choice on the morning line at 9-2. The 5-2 favorite is the only filly in this field with prior racing experience, Too Fast For You. The Eddie Kenneally trainee led early in her debut on May 11 at Churchill before finishing fourth, beaten a total of 1 3/4 lengths by Closing Act, subsequent winner of the Astoria Stakes.

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Prominent names are scattered throughout Friday’s 10-race card, including Tapit’s Conquest, who has kept stellar company this spring and is sure to draw attention in an allowance/optional-claiming race for 3-year-olds with a purse of $127,000. The colt competed in graded stakes earlier this year at Fair Grounds, with a creditable fourth-place finish in the Grade 2 Risen Star. That race was won by Angel of Empire, third in the Kentucky Derby and fourth in a dead heat in the Belmont Stakes. Finishing third in the Risen Star was Two Phil’s, second in the Derby and winner of the Ohio Derby last weekend.

Tapit’s Conquest most recently finished second in the Sir Barton Stakes at Pimlico, earning a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 96. The winner of that race, Arabian Lion, subsequently took the Grade 1 Woody Stephens.

Friday’s card also includes a pair of allowance/optional-claiming races for older horses, both with purses of $141,000; a $134,000 allowance/optional race for fillies and mares; a $127,000 allowance for fillies and mares; and a $120,000 turf maiden for older horses.

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