First Dudette faced a stern test in her first race for the Blinkers On horse racing partnership. The Allowance race at Santa Anita featured the highly regarded Baffert trainee, Cognitive, and Poetic, a Mandella filly ridden by Mike Smith. First Dudette dueled three deep then outside a rival leaving the turn, took a short lead into the stretch and held on gamely to win by a half length. The Blinkers On partners took home the lions share of the 56K purse plus the 20% purse bonus under Santa Anita's "ship and stay" program. First Dudette will be pointed to stakes action in her next start, the Stonehedge Farm South Stake in Florida or the Beaumont G3 at Keenland are possibilities.
In other racing news, Steph Being Steph will skip the G3 Beaumont and train up to the G2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs. We decided to give her a little time off after her 3rd place finish in the G2 Las Virgenes. We felt she deserved a little R & R after being steadily campaigned since last summer. She is doing great, and our goal is to get our stakes winning filly a graded stakes win for her broodmare value down the road.
Our 2 year old Cal-bred colt by Mucho Mach Man, now named A Man's Man, and our Cal-bred filly, Grinningeartoear, have been shipped in to the barn of Brian Koriner and are expected to make their first starts in June. They were both training great at Legacy Ranch, we expect big things from these two.
Gee Street and Angels N Devildogs will be trying to break their maidens at Golden Gate on 3/10 and 3/17. Both have a great chance to break through.
Finally, Cupids Claws, our 3 year old son of Kittens Joy, and Don'tteasethetiger, our exciting 2 year old Smiling Tiger colt, are expected to depart from Legacy Ranch in about 45 days and ship into Brian Koriner's barn.
