Twice a Grade 1 winner already,
Turbulent Descent will try to make it three when she faces five other
sophomore fillies in Saturday's $300,000 TVG Acorn.
Race
6 on Saturday's 13-race Belmont Stakes Day card, the TVG Acorn will
kick off the $1 million guaranteed All Graded Stakes Pick 6 at
approximately 2:34 p.m.
A California invader, Turbulent
Descent visits New York for the first time on the heels of a dominant
victory in the Grade 2 Beaumont over the synthetic surface at Keeneland
on April 17. A five-length victress that day at seven furlongs, her
previous race was the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks over
conventional dirt, which she won by a neck. Prior to that she was
defeated by Zazu in the Grade 1, one-mile Las Virgenes, her sophomore
debut, after closing out a 3-for-3 all-synthetic juvenile campaign with a
win in the Grade 1, 1 1/16-mile Hollywood Starlet.
"She
won the routes, but they're not her game," said Mike Puype, who trains
the daughter of Congrats for Blinkers On Racing. "She's a brilliant
one-turn race horse and she wins with speed to spare when she sprints.
Obviously she's got to handle a different racetrack, but outside of
that, her training and her works have just been unbelievable. It's hard
to say how she'll handle the track here, you don't know until it
happens, but in my mind, good horses don't seem to care. They seem to
get it done."
Puype said he decided after the Santa
Anita Oaks that the filly was best at distances up to and including a
mile, and that the TVG Acorn was an ideal spot given his future plans
for her.
"She was all out to get to the wire [in the
Santa Anita Oaks] and I said after that 'We've got to go back to one
turn,'" said Puype. "We had to leave the temptation of the Kentucky Oaks
away and then focus on the best agenda of races where you're ducking no
one and you put it on the line. There's no question you've got to come
to this race, and you've got to go to the Test [G1, August 6, Saratoga
Race Course]. So, we're here to run this race and then we'll try to show
up for the Test, and then figure out what to do and how to get her to
the Breeders' Cup."
David Flores, Turbulent Descent's
regular rider, will fly in from California to ride the 3-5 morning-line
favorite and the pair will leave from post position 2.
Trainer
Todd Pletcher will saddle a duo to challenge the favorite, the
lightly-raced WinStar Farm trainee Savvy Supreme along with Bobby Flay's
Her Smile.
Narrowly defeated in her maiden effort at
Gulfstream Park going 6 ½ furlongs, Savvy Supreme returned to graduate
by 5 ¼ lengths in her second start and won the Classy Mirage overnight
stakes at Belmont on May 18 in her most recent outing. The TVG Acorn
will be her first race beyond 6 ½ furlongs and she has been on or near
the lead in all of her previous efforts.
"She seems to
have taken a big step forward," said Jonathan Thomas, assistant to
Pletcher. "With the style she used last time, going a mile shouldn't be a
problem. We've always thought of her as a real quality filly and this
is the right spot."
Her Smile exits an 11th place finish
in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on May 6, her first start for Pletcher,
having been trained previously by Leigh Delacour. In her final start for
Delacour she was second in the Grade 3 Comely at Aqueduct Racetrack on
April 9.
"We've had her in the barn for a while now, so
she's had the chance to take to our program a little bit," said Thomas.
"The cutback certainly shouldn't be a problem. She ran a great one-turn
mile in the Comely, so if anything it would be a benefit."
John
Velazquez will ride Savvy Supreme, the morning-line second choice at
5-1, from post 3. Her Smile, 8-1, will break from the rail with Garrett
Gomez.
Another New York stakes winner returning in the
TVG Acorn is Darley Stable's It's Tricky, the eight-length heroine of
Aqueduct's Busher on February 11, her third win from as many starts.
Sent from Aqueduct to Florida after her dominant effort in the Busher,
she finished fourth in the 1 1/8-mile Gulfstream Park Oaks behind
runaway winner R Heat Lightning.
"She's training very
well since she came back from Florida," said trainer Kiaran McLaughlin.
"She's already a stakes winner, but we're very interested in a Grade 1
placing or a Grade 1 win. Being that she's doing great, and it's a
smaller field, we think she deserves a chance. We think she's
well-suited to two turns, but we don't think that a one-turn mile will
be a negative for her - she doesn't need two turns to be effective."
Eddie
Castro, who rode the Mineshaft filly to victory in the Busher, will be
back aboard the 6-1 morning-line third choice from post position 4.
Victoria's
Wildcat, who posted a mild upset to win the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes
on the Kentucky Oaks undercard May 6, will attempt to shake things up
again in the TVG Acorn. The daughter of Bellamy Road broke her maiden in
allowance company at Churchill Downs in her fifth start last fall -
just her second on conventional dirt - then went to the sidelines for
the winter. She has run twice so far in 2011, taking a 6 ½-furlong
allowance race at Gulfstream on March 19 en route to the seven-furlong
Eight Belles.
"We were either going to run here, or in
the [1 1/16-mile] Mother Goose," said trainer Bob Hess. "Actually I
think this is probably better than the Mother Goose because it's a
better transitional distance. A mile should be easy - when she got to
the front [in the Eight Belles] she completely switched leads, her head
went up, she hit the air brakes and basically trotted home. I think
she'll be much better at a one-turn mile as long as there's enough pace.
You can't change her running style and she's better when you gather her
and produce late."
Kent Desormeaux, who has ridden Victoria's Wildcat in all of her starts on dirt, has the call from post 5.
Completing
the field for the TVG Acorn is Snow Fall, who began her career on the
turf for trainer Mike Stidham, running second and third in two maiden
contests, then galloped in an off-the-turf race to earn her diploma at
Fair Grounds Race Course. She became a stakes winner in her most recent
start, taking the one-mile, off-the-turf Pike Creek at Delaware Park on
May 21.
Tabbed at 8-1 on the morning
line, she will leave from post 6 with Javier Castellano.
|
PP |
Horse |
Jockey |
Wgt |
Trainer |
Odds |
|
1 |
Her Smile
(VA) |
G K Gomez |
121 |
T A Pletcher |
8-1 |
|
2 |
Turbulent Descent
(FL) |
D R Flores |
121 |
M Puype |
3-5 |
|
3 |
Savvy Supreme
(KY) |
J R Velazquez |
121 |
T A Pletcher |
5-1 |
|
4 |
It's Tricky
(KY) |
E Castro |
121 |
K P McLaughlin |
6-1 |
|
5 |
Victoria's Wildcat
(KY) |
K J Desormeaux |
121 |
R B Hess, Jr. |
10-1 |
|
6 |
Snow Fall
(KY) |
J Castellano |
121 |
M Stidham |
8-1 |