The field has been drawn for the Ashland Saturday at Keeneland. There will be seven going in this GR1, $500,000 test over a mile and one sixteenth, B drew the four hole, inside of the two fillies that figure to be her main competition, Proud Spell and Country Star. Again, she won't be favoured, despite sweeping the Florida filly series of graded stakes. Proud Spell is tabbed at 8/5, Country Star at 9/5 and Johnny is at 5/1. Johnny figures that Proud Spell is the horse to beat, and I agree with him. She's won four of six and the only horse to beat her is Indian Blessing, the Breeder's Cup champion, who is skipping this race. She reversed that result in the recent Fair Grounds Oaks and comes into this race as a sharp horse. Country Star, on the other hand, is having her first start of the year and Bobby Frankel has picked a tough spot for her 2008 debut. She's classy however, ending her 2YO campaign with two consecutive GR1 wins.
Johnny reports that his filly is "bouncing off the walls", she is so eager to run. He gave her a two mile gallop on Wednesday to calm her down a bit and has pronounced her dead fit and ready to rumble. His game plan is to let Proud Spell and Country Star ding dong it on the front end and then run them down in the lane. I plan on betting her to win and using her in a box exacta with Proud Spell.
Johnny reports that his filly is "bouncing off the walls", she is so eager to run. He gave her a two mile gallop on Wednesday to calm her down a bit and has pronounced her dead fit and ready to rumble. His game plan is to let Proud Spell and Country Star ding dong it on the front end and then run them down in the lane. I plan on betting her to win and using her in a box exacta with Proud Spell.