Wet Paint, Xigera meet in Shawnee with plenty to prove

Wet Paint won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks as a 3-year-old in 2023. Xigera ended her 3-year-old campaign looking like she might blossom into a top older female in 2024. One race into their respective seasons, both fillies have a lot to prove Saturday in the Grade 3, $275,000 Shawnee Stakes going 1 1/16 miles at Churchill Downs.

Wet Paint ended her 2023 season with an eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and began this year finishing a tame sixth in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom. Things went even worse for Xigera, who had won three in a row at the end of last season, all by open lengths, twice in graded stakes, after being switched from turf to dirt. Second choice at 2-1 on May 3 in the La Troienne, Xigera was finished before the second turn, jogging to the wire 40 lengths behind victorious Idiomatic.

Wet Paint had no obvious excuse other than returning ring-rusty from a break.

“Maybe she wasn’t quite ready for it,” said trainer Brad Cox. “Coming back from a layoff in a Grade 1 isn’t ideal, either.

While Xigera was much worse than Wet Paint, at least her connections can point to a sloppy track as the reason for the filly’s no-show.

“It’s a strong enough race that if she’s able to run well or win, you’re kind of back on the right track,” said Phil Bauer, who trains Xigera for Rigney Racing. “She’s signaled to us that she’s ready to go. Hopefully she runs like she did at the end of last year.”

Xigera was beaten about 20 lengths on soft turf at Saratoga last summer. When the filly feels uncomfortable on a racing surface, Bauer speculated, she doesn’t run a step.

“We don’t want to hit the panic button. I don’t think she got anything out of her race on Oaks Day. We did some stamina work with her,” said Bauer, who gave Xigera one timed workout, a half-mile on May 25, since the La Troienne.

Horses like Hidden Connection, Bellamore, and Hoosier Philly can’t beat Xigera or Wet Paint at their very best, but Scylla can – if she can get two turns. Scylla has three easy wins and a close second to the good horse Beth’s Dream in her one-turn races. Heavily favored in the Doubledogdare at Keeneland, her lone route try, she was a well-beaten third.

Bill Mott, who trains the homebred filly for Juddmonte, is using the Shawnee to determine which direction – one turn or two – the rest of Scylla’s campaign goes. Despite the fact Scylla won a May 4 allowance by seven lengths, Mott will try Scylla in blinkers for the first time Saturday.

“She’s just not very focused when she’s inside horses. We’re still learning about that. We thought early on she could be a top-level horse. Now we’re trying to prove it,” Mott said.

Skelly fastest in Aristides

Skelly just might be the fastest six-furlong horse in North America, and he is absolutely the fastest horse in the $275,000 Aristides on Saturday at Churchill.

Skelly would be on a 10-race winning streak had he not succumbed to the Japanese horse Remake in deep stretch of the Riyadh Dirt Sprint in February. Most remarkable, Skelly came back from his trip to Saudi Arabia in such good shape that he was back on the Oaklawn Park work tab not even five weeks after his race at King Abdulaziz Racecourse. Skelly then returned to romp as the highweight in the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap April 13.

“He rebounded unbelievably well,” said trainer Steve Asmussen. “We were very concerned going into a race as serious as the Count Fleet after going to Saudi and back, and he ran fabulous.”

Skelly raced again April 4, in the $200,000 Lake Hamilton at Oaklawn, and despite breaking poorly, he went up to take the lead and ran an opening quarter-mile in 21.34 seconds.

“He’s an extremely fast horse. We’re going to keep him at six furlongs and not farther,” Asmussen said.

Asmussen said Skelly’s long-term goals are the Grade 1 Vanderbilt at Saratoga and the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

“Right now, we’re just hoping he’s an Aristides horse,” he said. “I hope he likes Churchill as much as he likes Oaklawn.”

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.