Zofelle, Got Stormy rematched in Distaff Turf Mile
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
LOUISVILLE, KY. – Nine weeks after putting on quite a show and finishing noses apart in the Grade 3 Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park, Got Stormy and Zofelle will meet again Saturday, this time 900 miles north at Churchill Downs and for four times the prize money in the Grade 2, $500,000 Distaff Turf Mile. The race could be decided over less than firm footing with periods of heavy rain in the forecast for Wednesday and into Thursday.
Trainer Brendan Walsh is hoping a little quicker pace and cleaner trip may help his improving filly Zofelle turn the tables on Got Stormy. Zofelle was forced to take the overland route after racing toward the rear of the field in the one-mile Honey Fox, rallying strongly outside Got Stormy only to fall inches short.
“I’m not surprised Got Stormy is back in this race too,” said Walsh. “We kind of knew she was going in there, but she only beat us a whisker the last time and we didn’t have the greatest of trips that day. We had to go around another filly on the turn that was in front of us.”
Zofelle ran very well in her only start over the local strip, finishing third behind Secret Message and La Signare in the 2019 Mint Julep. The prospect of the course having some cut in it may also work in her favor as Zofelle won the 2019 Pago Hop at Fair Grounds over a yielding surface in her 3-year-old finale and worked well over “good” turf here last Sunday.
“She ran great in the Mint Julep,” Walsh said. “She looked like a winner at midstretch, but the extra sixteenth may have been too much for her, and she did get beat by two nice fillies that day. The one time she ran over a course with some ease in the ground was at the Fair Grounds, at the end of her 3-year-old campaign, and that might have been her best race yet. I think she’s come back better than ever after the layoff we gave her the second half of last season and she couldn’t be doing better coming into this race.”
Got Stormy went five races without a victory after winning the Grade 1 Matriarch to close out her stellar 2019 season, but she’s rebounded with three wins in her last four starts, including the Honey Fox. She sat a perfect trip that day stalking the pace of Jakarta, and figures to have even more speed to run at on Saturday with Blowout in the lineup. Her status for the race could be in question, however, depending on the condition of the course, because trainer Mark Casse has always conceded she is not quite at her best going a mile over less than firm ground.
Blowout has been outstanding yet also a source of some frustration for her connections over the past 18 months, having finished second in her last four starts dating to the Grade 3 Valley View in the fall of 2019 – with the total margin of those four losses a little more than a length. She has been freshened since being defeated a nose by Viadera in the Matriarch last November at Del Mar.
Blowout is one of two fillies trainer Chad Brown entered in the race, along with She’s Got You, whom he also backed off on last winter. She’ll be making her first start since a strong third-place finish in the Grade 3 Athenia on Oct. 25 at Belmont Park.
Jakarta, who is also entered in the License Fee on Friday at Belmont Park, finished fourth, beaten only a half-length in the Honey Fox, succumbing grudgingly after relinquishing the lead to Got Stormy near midstretch. She will race without blinkers for the first time on Saturday.
Abscond, seeking her first victory since upsetting the Grade 1 Natalma over a yielding strip 19 months earlier at Woodbine, and the multiple graded stakes placed New York Girl complete the field.