Promise Me Silver has ‘earned’ the right to face Grade 1
rivals
Promise Me Silver (Silver City) breezed five furlongs
over the fast main track at her Churchill Downs home base on Friday ahead of an expected bid in the
$750,000 Acorn S. (G1) during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival on June
6.
The Texas homebred covered the distance in 1:01 1/5 for
trainer Bret Calhoun, ranking as the 10th-fastest of 20 works on the day.
“She worked five-eighths (of a mile) very well and she
galloped out really nice,” Calhoun said by phone Saturday morning. “It was
pretty much what we wanted.”
Undefeated in her eight career starts, Promise Me Silver
has faced rivals at six different tracks; culminating with a 1 1/4-length score in the Eight Belles
S. (G3) in her most recent start on the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard.
“I hope we fit really well. We’re not really sure who all
is going but she’s earned it,” Calhoun stated. “She’s done really well. This will
be the toughest company she’s faced so far, but she’s raced at six different
tracks and we hope that’ll benefit her at Belmont. I know the track will be a
little different, it’s a little deeper, a little sandy, but we think she should
handle it.
“She’ll work again Friday or Saturday and fly to New York
on Wednesday,” he added.
Promise Me Silver is expected to meet a handful of talented sophomore fillies
in the Acorn, including Grade 1 victress Condo Commando (Tiz Wonderful), Grade 2
heroine Birdatthewire (Summer Bird), promising allowance winner Curalina (Curlin)
and undefeated
local runner Bar of Gold (Medaglia d’Oro).
Condo Commando and Birdatthewire — who finished ninth and fifth,
respectively, in the Kentucky Oaks last out — both worked five furlongs on Saturday.
The former, trained by Rudy Rodriguez, was caught in 1:01 4/5 on Aqueduct’s fast
dirt, while Birdatthewire covered the distance in 1:01 under the Twin Spires for
trainer Dale Romans.
Curalina logged a half-mile over Belmont Park’s fast training track on Friday
in :48 2/5 for trainer Todd Pletcher while Bar of Gold went out on the same day
in 1:00 for five furlongs on Belmont’s fast main track.
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