Filly and Mare Turf Diary

FILLY & MARE TURF DIARY

MARCH 28, 2006

By Kellie Reilly

Since our last installment, we've enjoyed a potentially key race

on the Western Front in California, with SILVER CUP (Ire) (Almutawakel

[GB]) posting another valiant victory, this time over intriguing new faces, but

the picture on the Eastern Front in Florida is murkier. Indeed, the success of

READY'S GAL (More Than Ready) in the March 18 Hillsborough S. (G3) at Tampa Bay

Downs has left more questions than answers.

Silver Cup engraved her name in the annals of Santa Anita

with her heart-stopping score in last Sunday's Santa Ana H. (G2), becoming the

first filly to sweep the San Gorgonio H. (G2), Buena Vista H. (G2) and Santa

Ana. While her strong late kick carried her through the first two, her resolute

character earned her the third. Silver Cup made her move to take the lead coming

out of the far turn, perhaps a bit early for her, and BEAUTYANDTHEBEAST

(GB) (Machiavellian) roared back along the rail. A battle royal ensued

throughout the stretch. Silver Cup could easily have wilted under pressure, or

flashed her tail in a feminine fit of pique, or insist she'd done enough

already, or just plain throw it all away. But she did none of the above.

Instead, she kept finding ever more, grittily grinding out a half-length edge by

the wire. It remains to be seen if Silver Cup wants to go one yard farther than

the Santa Ana's 1 1/8 miles, but her iron will is decidedly in her favor.

Loads of credit to the minor place-getters. ARGENTINA

(Ire) (Sadler's Wells), making her first start in America for Bobby Frankel, was

just revving into her highest gear late and came from far back to beat

Beautyandthebeast by a nose for the place. It was a tremendous effort,

especially considering that she had not run in seven months, and the 1 1/8-mile

distance is at least a furlong too short for her. In France last year, she

finished second in two prestigious races for sophomore fillies --

the about 1 1/4-mile Prix Saint-Alary (Fr-G1) and the Prix de Diane Hermes

(Fr-G1), or French Oaks, at about 1 5/16 miles, vainly chasing the phenomenal

Divine Proportions in the latter. Argentina will be a force to reckon with when

she reappears over longer. Beautyandthebeast is to be commended for a

terrifically game effort in third. SHARP LISA (Dixieland Band) also ran

an encouraging race in her turf debut for fourth, beaten a total of

three-quarters of a length. Accustomed to rating behind

very fast fractions in her last few dirt races, she found herself setting the

tepid pace for the first half-mile, then dropped back, only to finish strongly

in deep stretch. Out of a half-sister (by Dynaformer) to multiple Grade 1 turf

star Bien Bien, she's very much worth watching on this surface again.

The Hillsborough outcome, in contrast, was less informative. To be sure, Ready's Gal

was plenty good enough to take full advantage of her dream trip, tracking the

pacesetter through ludicrously slow fractions to pounce in the stretch, but it's

questionable whether she would have won in different circumstances. AMORAMA

(Fr) (Sri Pekan) was boxed in just as the tempo started to quicken on the far

turn, and after she broke free of her prison, she took some time to gather her

momentum before closing strongly for second. Still, we can't

really tell if she's able to duplicate her top-notch Del Mar form anywhere else.

Had the race, and her trip, unfolded differently, she may well have put that question to rest.

LAURAFINA (Cozzene), who had defeated the top two in previous starts, had

two strikes against her. First, she broke through the gate prior to the race,

almost universally a death knell right there, and second, she was dead last of

12 while the leader waltzed six furlongs in 1:15 3/5. After all of that, she

got up for fifth. It wasn't the breakout performance that she seemed on the

verge of producing, but given the obstacles, it was creditable. For all of these

reasons, I'm not taking

the Hillsborough result at face value.