Two Sharp, Brightwork return to face Hope Road in Winning Colors

The Memorial Day feature at Churchill Downs, the $250,000 Winning Colors (G3), shapes up as a clash between sharp current form and the back class of fillies making their seasonal reappearances. Hope Road is the best exemplar of the former, coming off a runner-up effort in the Derby City Distaff (G1), while the high-profile returnees are Two Sharp and Brightwork.

Hope Road has been installed as the slight 7-5 morning-line favorite over the 8-5 Two Sharp. Based in California with Bob Baffert, Hope Road won four straight as a sophomore, including the Torrey Pines (G3) and Bayakoa (G3) over a mile at Del Mar, before reverting to sprints. The Quality Road filly has lost ground down the lane in her past three going seven furlongs, but she’s 2-for-2 at this six-furlong trip. Florent Geroux picks up the mount.

Two Sharp, beaten at odds-on in her course-and-distance debut, has come a long way in the interim. The Phil Bauer trainee was last seen crushing the Nov. 23 Chilukki (G3) around Churchill’s one-turn mile, following up on an equally emphatic display in a 6 1/2-furlong Keeneland allowance. With regular pilot Junior Alvarado aboard, the daughter of Twirling Candy is tactically drawn in the outside post 9.

Brightwork, the 2023 Spinaway (G1) heroine, has a history of firing fresh. In her belated comeback at Saratoga last summer, the John Ortiz pupil denied favored Two Sharp in the six-furlong Prioress (G3). Brightwork, pegged as an 8-1 chance on the morning line, will break from the rail with new rider John Velazquez.

Steve Asmussen’s multiple stakes winner Benedetta hopes to rebound from an eighth in the Derby City Distaff, while Into Champagne also tries to recover her former effervescence for Ian Wilkes. Sidelined after her seventh in last year’s Kentucky Oaks (G1), Into Champagne has resurfaced unsuccessfully in sprints this season. 

The in-form Eddie Kenneally sends out Mink’s Palace, fresh off her first stakes coup in the local prep, the April 26 Roxelana S., and recent Keeneland allowance winner Easy Red. Both are proven at Churchill as well. Mink’s Palace is a bona fide horse-for-the-course who appears to be better here than anywhere else, while Easy Red is 2-for-2 beneath the Twin Spires. 

The Greg Foley-trained Harbor Springs, third as the Roxelana favorite, aims to turn the tables on Mink’s Palace. Two starts back, she wore down Easy Red in an allowance at Fair Grounds. Rounding out the cast is Mahoning Distaff scorer Miss Arlington, who has been unplaced in her three ensuing starts. 

The Winning Colors is named in honor of the third, and most recent, filly to win the Kentucky Derby (G1). In 1988, the gray beat the boys to emulate the trailblazing Regret (1915) and Genuine Risk (1980).