The top-three finishers from Churchill Downs’ Saturday feature event — the Mint Julep
H. (G3) — came out of the race in good order.
Carl Pollard’s victorious Kiss Moon (Malibu Moon) — whose dam, Kiss the Devil
(Kris S.), triumphed in
the 2003 edition of the Mint Julep — was doing very well, according to trainer
David Vance.
“She’s doing fine, she ate up good last night,” said Vance, who scored
his first graded stakes victory since 2005 when My Trusty Cat won the Human
Distaff (GI). “She’s just been resting and taking it easy.
“I was happy with the
performance because this mare ran such a big race. This filly got the full 1
1/16 (miles) yesterday. It took her all to get there, but she got there. She can
keep herself out of trouble; it’s very seldom that she gets herself in trouble.”
Vance compared Kiss Moon to
her dam.
“Her mother more or less wanted to be on the lead,” he said. “This
mare could take it either way depending on how fast the pace is or how she
breaks. (Kiss Moon has) got a bit of a temper, if you challenge her, she’ll
challenge you. (Kiss the Devil) tore a pair of pants off me once, she was mean. She
was OK if you didn’t back her up in a corner, if you did that she’d get a
little bit wild.”
Vance said Kiss Moon would probably run again in the next five to six
weeks. Possible spots for the five-year-old mare include the $150,000 Modesty
H. (G3) at Arlington International on July 11 or the
$100,000 Indiana General Assembly Distaff at Indiana Grand on July 18.
I’m Already Sexy (Ready’s Image), who was just a head away from
winning the Mint Julep, came out of the race well according to Wayne Catalano’s
assistant trainer Ben Trask. The dark bay mare could make her next
appearance in the $50,000 Ellis Park Turf on July 4.
“That spot would make the most sense,” Trask stated. “Her owners are from here
so she probably wouldn’t go to Monmouth.”
Strike Charmer (Smart Strike), who has won three of her seven starts
on the Matt Winn Turf Course, also came out of the race well according to
trainer David Carroll.
“She looked very good, no problems at all and she cleaned up her feed,”
Carroll said. “I was disappointed. I thought we couldn’t have had a better trip
than we did and credit to the winner, but she ran the race well and regroup. She
loves it here, and runs well here.
“Her preferred trip is to be on the outside and make a run on the outside
because she’s a small horse and gets intimidated by other horses when she’s on
the inside and we were stuck down on the inside so in the end she was trying to
get out. She always runs with her head cocked, she’s done that all her life. I
don’t know why but she has. She always gives you 110 percent.”
The homebred mare will probably travel to Saratoga with a
strong of eight horses that Carroll plans to campaign at the upstate New York
track.
“We’ll take her up there, the owners are from there,” he said. “That’s not to
say she’ll run there, but I’m sure she’ll make an appearance. We’ve got Monmouth
and other tracks up there, but there are no real plans at this point.”
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