Joyce Young’s three-year-old Kentucky homebred filly Caroline
Thomas, a regally-bred daughter of Giant’s Causeway out of Grade 1 winner
Bit of Whimsy, will try to earn some black-type of her own when making her
stakes debut in Sunday’s $100,000
Sweetest Chant at Gulfstream Park.
Jockey Luis Saez picks up the mount on Caroline Thomas for
trainer Barclay Tagg in a field of eight sophomore fillies drawn for the one-mile turf test. She has made three starts beginning with a runner-up
debut on turf at Belmont Park in mid-September, a maiden win over the Aqueduct
course in early November, and a sharp allowance victory over the Gulfstream
course on December 16.
“We’ve had high expectations for her from the beginning,” Tagg said. “She’s
doing real good and bucking and playing this morning. It looks like a graded
stakes-quality field. It will be a tough test but we think she’ll be up to it.”
Caroline Thomas’ dam, Bit of Whimsy, is a daughter of Distorted Humor bred
and raced by the same connections. She won four of 10 starts including the Grade
1 Queen
Elizabeth II Invitational Challenge Cup at Keeneland and Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at
Churchill Downs for Tagg in 2007.
Caroline Thomas’ chief rival in the Sweetest Chant would appear to be Mystic Love with regular jockey Elvis Trujillo aboard for trainer
Jessica Campitelli. Mystic Love has won three of four starts and beat colts over
the course last out when winning the Dania Beach on December 15. The Maryland-bred
daughter of Not For Love also captured the Selima sprinting over the Laurel Park
turf in her previous start on October 27.
“We chose the Dania Beach against colts rather than wait
for the Ginger Brew two weeks later because of the timing and the distance,” Campitelli
explained. “We didn’t want her to have to go a mile-and-and-sixteenth in her
first start going a distance after sprinting in her first three starts when she
only had to go a mile in the Dania Beach. She’s trained great and we’re looking
forward to this race.”
New York homebred Discreet Marq
has already run in four stakes for trainer Jane Cibelli, most recently finishing
third in the 1 1/16-mile Ginger Brew over the Gulfstream course on New Year’s
Day after setting the pace to midstretch. Jockey Joe Rocco Jr. gets the call
on the daughter of Discreet Cat, who won a November 22 overnight stakes on turf at Aqueduct in her previous start.
An intriguing contender in the Sweetest Chant is Irish-bred Premier Steps to be ridden by Javier
Castellano for trainer Chad Brown. The daughter of Footstepsinthesand won one of
five starts in England and France last year before traveling to California where she
finished sixth in the Grade 3 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood Park last out on November 24,
although beaten only 2 3/4 lengths for it all after a rough start.
Leinan makes her first start since
capturing the Glorious Song going seven furlongs over Woodbine’s Polytrack on November 11,
and will keep jockey Luis Contreras aboard for trainer Josie
Carroll.
Leinan is a daughter of Ready’s Image purchased for $80,000
at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sales and made three starts before
the Glorious Song, beginning with an impressive five-length debut victory on
Keeneland’s Polytrack in April. She didn’t run again until posting runner-up
efforts at Woodbine in September and October, one on Polytrack and the other on
turf.
Completing the Sweetest Chant field are Jadira, a debut maiden winner on New
Year’s Day; allowance scorer I O Ireland, who was unplaced in the Ginger Brew;
and Heading to Toga, fifth in a pair of stakes in New York in her past two.
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