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Hilda's Passion back to form in Ballerina
Even if Sassy Image would have maintained a straight course, the speed-killing duel that would have helped her chances did not materialize. Instead, Hilda's Passion held a comfortable one-length lead through splits of :22 4/5 and :45 2/5, opened up on the field through the stretch and passed the wire 9 1/4 lengths clear to finish in 1:22 over the fast main track. Ridden by Javier Castellano, Hilda's Passion paid $7.10, $4 and $3.30 as the 5-2 second choice. Second all the way around the track was Tar Heel Mom, who held off 5-1 chance Tamarind Hall (Graeme Hall) by a neck for second. It was another 4 1/4 lengths back to Bronx City Girl (Yankee Gentleman), who was followed by Devil by Design (Medaglia d'Oro) and Sassy Image. The latter trailed throughout and lost by nearly 27 lengths. Hour Glass (Petionville) was the Ballerina's lone withdrawal. "It was pretty straightforward. We wanted to be on the lead, she broke great, and when she's on her game, she's awfully, awfully good," Pletcher said. Hilda's Passion sports a 14-8-2-0 record and $739,493 in earnings. The bay, who landed the off-the-turf Bennington S. at Saratoga and the Raven Run S. (G2) on Keeneland's Polytrack in her final two outings last year, has developed into a leading candidate for champion female sprinter honors this season. At Gulfstream Park last winter, Hilda's Passion missed by a neck after a less than ideal trip in the January 15 Sugar Swirl S. (G3), but rebounded to capture the February 13 Hurricane Bertie S. (G3) and March 19 Inside Information S. (G2), the latter in a track-record 1:20 2/5 for seven furlongs. Hilda's Passion was next second in the Humana Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, beaten by track specialist Sassy Image. She rebounded with an emphatic 5 1/4-length score in the Vagrancy H. (G2), but completely failed to show up in the Bed o' Roses, where she sent bridge jumpers looking for the closest high-rise window in finishing sixth by more than a dozen lengths against a suspect field. Bred by Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Kuster in Kentucky, Hilda's Passion RNA'd for $4,200 as a Keeneland November weanling. She is out of the winning El Prado (Ire) mare Executricker, whose latest foals are an unraced sophomore colt named Mannak (Canadian Frontier), a full brother to Hilda's Passion, and a juvenile colt named Edge of the World (Quest). Further back, this is the family of English highweight Twice Over (GB) (Observatory), who became a two-time winner of the Champion S. (Eng-G1) last fall and most recently took the Juddmonte International S. (Eng-G1); Group 1 queen Passage of Time (GB) (Dansili [GB]); champion Banshee Breeze (Unbridled); and Hall of Famer and noted sire Damascus (Sword Dancer).
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