Two Sharp started her 4-year-old campaign the same way she ended her 3-year-old season – impressively winning a stakes race at Churchill Downs.
Two Sharp showed brilliant speed to make an early lead through a 21.14 second opening quarter-mile yet had plenty left for the stretch run of the Grade 3, $250,000 Winning Colors Stakes, winning by 3 1/2 lengths.
Two Sharp broke running from the outside post in a field reduced to seven after two scratches, and jockey Junior Alvarado, who came to Churchill from New York to ride Two Sharp, let the filly roll.
“She broke very sharp and I wasn’t going to take anything away. I don’t think it’s how fast you’re going, it’s how you’re going fast with her,” Alvarado said. “In the middle of the turn she took a deep breath and I said, ‘Oh boy, I have horse.’ ”
Boy, did he ever. After running easily the fastest first quarter-mile in the race, Two Sharp also turned in the fastest final furlong, 12.60, with no one ever getting close to her. She continued to widen her lead on the gallop-out, and Two Sharp in winning the one-turn mile Chilukki this past November at Churchill already has shown she can carry her speed at least that far.
“She’s probably the best horse we’ve ever had in the barn,” said Phil Bauer, private trainer for Richard Rigney’s Rigney Racing.
Rigney paid a pretty penny to acquire such a talent, going to $925,000 to acquire Two Sharp at Keeneland’s September yearling sale of 2022. Two Sharp posted 13 timed workouts during the spring and summer of her 2-year-old season but never raced during 2023, and after two more official breezes that winter, she went dark again, finally debuting last June at Churchill.
After tough-trip debut second, she won second time out at Saratoga by more than 11 lengths but was beaten a neck in the Grade 3 Prioress by Brightwork, a soundly defeated fourth Monday. Despite Two Sharp winning a first-level allowance race last October at Keeneland by more than six lengths, Bauer added blinkers for the Chilukki, which yielded another open-lengths victory.
Two Sharp was considered for a trip to California for the Grade 1 La Brea in late December but instead got a winter break and came back very ready for the Winning Colors.
Two Sharp’s display of speed down the backstretch and around the turn had 4-5 favorite Hope Road off the bridle past the three-eighths pole, and as Two Sharp ran on, Benedetta rallied for second, three-quarters of a length ahead of Hope Road.
Two Sharp was timed in 1:08.75 over a fast track and paid $5.82 as the favorite. Easy Red and Harbor Springs were early scratches.
Two Sharp is by Twirling Candy out of Double Sharp, by Distorted Humor. With better luck, she might be undefeated. Bauer said no summer plans have yet been formed. Wherever Two Sharp shows up next, if she runs like she did in the Winning Colors, her opponents are in trouble.
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