Woodbine: Brown sends Sovereign Crisis north for turf allowance

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Prominent New York trainer Chad Brown has shipped four horses to Woodbine this year. Two of them finished second in a stakes, most notably Bowman’s Causeway in the Plate Trial, and the other two bombed. He sends out Sovereign Crisis in Friday’s headliner, and it will be interesting to see how she does in the first-level allowance for 3-year-old fillies that is scheduled for nine furlongs on the grass.

Sovereign Crisis was a disappointment at 2, but she turned the corner following a layoff at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 27, when she graduated in a $35,000 claimer on the grass. She doubled up a month later in a $50,000 starter allowance and then capped her Gulfstream campaign by running third in a one-mile allowance.

Sovereign Crisis is exiting a wide fifth-place finish in the one-mile Little Silver Stakes at Monmouth, for which she earned her fourth straight Beyer Speed Figure in the mid 70s. She has since worked at Saratoga and will be ridden by Patrick Husbands.

Overrated also struggled early in her career, before winning her maiden over the Gulfstream sod in April. She set very slow splits in that 1 1/16-mile contest, before coasting home on top by three lengths over a next-out winner.

Overrated did okay to finish third in her first allowance outing here May 28, a race that was taken off the turf. She awaited room early in the stretch, before closing for third after finding her way.

Emma Wilson retains the mount on Overrated, who worked five-eighths in 1:01.20 on the turf training course last Friday for trainer Mark Frostad.

Skylara is experimenting on the grass and possesses ample breeding for the surface. She earned her diploma at first asking going long on the Polytrack in April, before finishing a flat third in an allowance route.

Luis Contreras will ride the Roger Attfield-trained Skylara, who is going on Lasix.

Mistress Gallop showed promise at 2, but could only manage seventh in the Feb. 12 Florida Oaks at Tampa. She has regressed dramatically since running third in an April allowance over Keeneland’s Polytrack and is seemingly over the top.

Karlie’s Holiday, who graduated here in the fall, has been freshened since a dull performance in an April 15 optional claimer at Gulfstream. She doesn’t have much breeding for the grass, on which she has yet to compete.