Wilkes looking forward to Coaching Club with Champagne Anyone

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Ian Wilkes was a man on the move Friday.

Wilkes had just driven to Saratoga from Kentucky and then was headed to the Albany airport to fly back to the Midwest where he was to saddle With Dignity in Saturday’s Indiana Oaks. Following that race, Wilkes was headed back to Saratoga where on Sunday he was to start two horses on the card, including Bohemian Bourbon in the $100,000 Coronation Cup, a turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies.

Next Saturday, Wilkes’s most accomplished 3-year-old filly Champagne Anyone is slated to return to the races in the Grade 1, $500,000 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.

Champagne Anyone won the Grade 2 Gulfstream Oaks on March 30 and then finished fourth, 7 1/2 lengths behind winner Serengeti Empress in the Kentucky Oaks.

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In the Kentucky Oaks, Champagne Anyone was steadied early on, and then down the backside she steadied again and got shuffled back to next-to-last. Champagne Anyone was eight to nine wide in the stretch.

“We were pleased she rallied to be a good fourth,” Wilkes said. “She was the only one closing at the end.”

The Kentucky Oaks was Champagne Anyone’s fourth race of the year and eighth in her career. Wilkes opted to give the filly a freshening with the Coaching Club in mind.

“She’s a big filly, but a light filly, and she was going since last summer at Ellis,” Wilkes said. “Early in the year I felt I needed more racing to get her to the Oaks. I took the opportunity to freshen her and get ready for a fall campaign.”

Champagne Anyone is one of just three confirmed starters for the Oaks. The other two are Acorn winner Guarana and Black-Eyed Susan winner Point of Honor. Others listed as possible include Boxwood, Classic Fit, Grandezza, and Safta.