In 2020, her second year training, Cherie DeVaux sent Bayerness out to a sixth-place Kentucky Oaks finish. DeVaux hasn’t had a classic start since, but with two horses to run Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Lecomte Stakes and two more, including favored Atropa, in the Silverbulletday, DeVaux can realistically hope to end that drought.
Atropa races for the first time since finishing a close second in the Grade 2 Golden Rod on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs. With seven weeks of development, Atropa ought to have improved, but even if she simply runs back to her Golden Rod – a stronger race than the Silverbulletday – she should win. And DeVaux has seen changes for the better in Atropa, likely to get bet below her 2-1 morning line.
“She’s matured and refined from 2 to 3, and she’s a horse who continues to train forwardly each week,” DeVaux said.
Top stable jockey Jose Ortiz rides Atropa for the third time, while Flavien Prat picks up the mount on DeVaux’s other runner, White Smoke. The six-runner field also includes the two-start maiden Dancin in Old Town; Taken By the Wind, unbeaten after two races; and the second- and third-place finishers from the Dec. 20 Untapable, Luv Your Neighbor and Pashmina. Contested over one mile and 70 yards, the $150,000 Silverbulletday is a 42-point qualifier for the Kentucky Oaks, the first five finishers earning 20, 10, 6, 4, and 2 points.
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Atropa developed early enough and showed sufficient promise to debut at Saratoga. DeVaux expected a competitive showing but got a distant sixth-place finish in a six-furlong race run over a sloppy track the filly might have disdained. In October, Atropa zipped to a 10-length route win at Keeneland, and after racing farther behind a faster pace in the Golden Rod she stayed on encouragingly, beaten a half-length by a potential star, Bella Ballerina. Ortiz breaks her from the rail Saturday and Atropa should not race far behind what projects as a modest tempo. Win or lose, Atropa’s not likely to race again until March.
“She’s a big, long filly, and we have to watch her condition,” DeVaux said.
White Smoke has a similar body type, and while she got up in time to win her debut over six furlongs last month, White Smoke should move forward routing.
“With racing and distance, she should improve,” DeVaux said.
While winless, Dancin in Old Town, despite challenging trips, held her own with some talented maidens in Kentucky, and she might be as fast as Taken By the Wind, whose Saratoga debut victory came in a restricted maiden, and who beat very modest opposition in the Pocahontas, a one-turn Churchill Downs mile.
Pashmina set the pace in the Untapable and already was tiring when she got into tight quarters and was checked at the three-sixteenths pole. She wound up 4 1/2 lengths behind Luv Your Neighbor, who nearly won her two-turn debut despite jockey Axel Concepcion losing his iron during the bumping incident with Pashmina, finishing with one leg in the stirrups.
“She passed that test stretching out last time, handled it well, and now we’ll see if she can make another jump,” trainer Michael Stidham said.
But if Atropa also makes that jump, she’s winning the Silverbulletday and setting off down the Kentucky Oaks trail for DeVaux.
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