A year after scoring Staton Flurry's first Grade 1 victory, Shedaresthedevil next hopes to give her Hot Springs owner his first Breeders' Cup win and Eclipse Award.
With three Grade 1 victories in two years, the 4-year-old filly posted her fourth graded victory of 2021 Saturday night in the $400,000 Locust Grove. The Breeders' Cup Distaff Nov. 6 at Del Mar likely brings a rematch with Eclipse favorite Letruska and her first meeting with probable 3-year-old filly champion and fellow Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat.
Too bad the race isn't at Churchill Downs, where Shedaresthedevil, a debut winner over the track, is 5-for-5. Not that trainer Brad Cox's filly is disadvantaged by the race site, winning the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch in August at the seaside Southern California track. Neither Letruska (trained by Fausto Gutierrez) nor Malathaat (Todd Pletcher) has run at Del Mar, and Malathaat has not faced older horses.
Another thing in her favor is that Shedaresthedevil, in March's Grade 2 Azeri at Oaklawn, handed Letruska her only 2021 defeat. The 5-year-old Mexican champion then won Oaklawn's Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap and avenged the Azeri loss to Shedaresthedevil (third) in June's Grade 1 Ogden Phipps at Belmont Park. Those races were 1 1/16 miles; the Distaff marks Shedaresthedevil's first race at nine furlongs, the Oaks distance, since last year's Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland.
In the Grade 3 Locust Grove, her first start since the Hirsch, Shedaresthedevil exhibited the speed that more and more is becoming part of her arsenal. Carrying 125 pounds, 4 more than each of her five rivals, Shedaresthedevil burst to the front under jockey Florent Geroux and led by one length as the field turned for home.
In what the Equibase Co. chartcaller judged a "gamely" effort, Shedaresthedevil put away two horses outside and answered Crystal Ball's rail bid late. A neck in front after a fast-rated mile and one-sixteenth in 1:42.86, Shedaresthedevil paid $3.20, $2.40 and $2.10 with Crystal Ball second and Oaklawn-raced Envoutante third.
"She ran huge," Flurry tweeted after the race.
Shedaresthedevil has earned just short of $1 million in her 4-year-old season and $2,291,458 from 16 lifetime races. Starting her career under Simon Callaghan in California, racing twice at Del Mar, Shedaresthedevil sold for $280,000 at Keeneland in November of her 2-year-old season. Original owner Qatar Racing Ltd. kept a share and another was sold to Flurry's racetrack friend Autry Lowry Jr. of Bossier City, La.
Besides the Kentucky Oaks and Locust Grove, the Daredevil filly won the Grade 1 La Troienne at Churchill Downs in April. Her other major victories are the Azeri and 2020 Honeybee at Oaklawn and the 2020 Grade 3 Indiana Oaks at Indiana Grand.
• Multiple Oaklawn winner Lone Rock had a four-race winning streak snapped when second as 1-10 favorite in Saturday's $300,000 Grand Prix American Jockey Club Invitational at Belmont.
Locally Owned, an 18-1 longshot trained by Tom Morley and ridden by Dylan Davis, got up by one length going 13 furlongs on dirt.
Runner-up in Oaklawn's Temperence Hill in March, 6-year-old Lone Rock came off a Saratoga stakes victory and earlier took Belmont's Grade 2 Brooklyn. Five for seven in 2021, the Majestic Warrior gelding won two Oaklawn allowances for trainer Robertino Diodoro.
• Smokin' Jay, a 3-year-old Cairo Prince colt, gave trainer Kelsey Danner a New York stakes victory in Thursday's $100,000 Allied Forces on opening day at Belmont.
Ridden by Luis Saez, Smokin' Jay won by a head going six furlongs on turf and paid $32.20 to win. Third was Jaxon Traveler, Oaklawn's Bachelor winner in April for Steve Asmussen.
Danner comes from a racing family with father Mark a trainer and mother Kelly formerly employed at Oaklawn and Churchill Downs. Kelly's late father, Harry Holcomb, also was a trainer.