NEWS

Two champions headline star-studded Ashland

Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 3:11 PM

SHE BE WILD

FourFootedFotos.com

by Tim Nichols

The $400,000 Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1), the first Grade 1 race of the Keeneland Race Course spring meeting, will not lack for star power as two champions will take to the track on Saturday.

Nancy Mazzoni’s She Be Wild, the 2009 champion two-year-old filly, and Sovereign Stable’s Negligee, Canada’s champion two-year-old filly, top an impressive field of eight three-year-old fillies for the 1 1/16-mile race on the synthetic Polytrack surface.

She Be Wild, an Offlee Wild filly trained by Wayne Catalano, finished fifth in the Forward Gal Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park on January 31 in her first outing since winning the Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). Of the eight horses that raced after winning at the 2009 Breeders’ Cup World Championships, only Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Zenyatta has tasted victory.

The Eclipse Award winner, however, returns to a familiar surface on Saturday. She won her first three career starts—a maiden claiming race, the Top Flight Stakes, and the Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (G3)—on the Polytrack surface at Arlington Park

Her lone defeat as a juvenile was a second-place finish to Negligee in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) on October 9 at Keeneland.

Negligee, trained by John Terranova, will make her first start since finishing sixth, beaten by 1¾ lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Much like She Be Wild, the Northern Afleet filly enters with plenty of experience on Polytrack. She won a 5½-furlong maiden claiming race on July 25 in her career debut and followed with a second-place finish in the Ontario Debutante Stakes on August 15, both on the Polytrack surface at Woodbine, before shipping to Kentucky and winning the Alcibiades.

Saturday’s race also features a pair of fillies who came tantalizing close to becoming Grade 1 winners last year.

Peter Callahan’s Beautician, trained by Ken McPeek, enters off a runner-up finish in the Honeybee Stakes (G3) on March 13 at Oaklawn Park. She finished second in both the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and Spinaway Stakes (G1) last season.

Tom and Marilyn Braly’s Evening Jewel was second by a nose to Blind Luck in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G1) on February 13 at Santa Anita Park in her most recent start. The stakes-winning Northern Afleet filly will makeher first start outside of Southern California on Saturday.

Jack Swain’s homebred Apple Charlotte, a Smart Strike filly trained by Graham Motion, will make her first main track start in the Ashland. She finished second to Khancord Kid in the Herecomesthebride Stakes (G3) on March 6 on the Gulfstream turf course in her most recent outing.

Also entered are multiple graded stakes-placed winner Upperline, Grade 2-placed winner Protesting, and maiden winner It’s Tea Time.

Tim Nichols is internet content editor of Thoroughbred Times

Central Bank Ashland S.