A three-time stakes winner last year, Beau Recall will open her 6-year-old season in Saturday’s $100,000 Mint Julep (G3) at Churchill Downs. The 1 1/16-mile turf affair shapes up to be an exciting race with a fine field of 14 fillies and mares.
Beau Recall showed an affinity for the local course when defeating a strong field in the Distaff Turf Mile (G2) on the 2019 Kentucky Derby undercard, edging subsequent multiple Grade 1 winner Get Stormy by a 1 1/4-length margin. The Irish-bred daughter Sir Prancealot made three more starts in 2019, sandwiching a victory in the Yellow Ribbon (G2) between runner-up finishes in the Just a Game (G1) and Rodeo Drive (G1), before heading to the sidelines in late September.
One of two entered for Brad Cox, Beau Recall will return from a 245-day hiatus. Shaun Bridgmohan, who was up for a pair of starts early last year, will retake the mount aboard the late runner.
Cox will also send out Grade 3 queen Juliet Foxtrot. A maiden winner from nine starts in England, the Juddmonte Farms homebred recorded her first stakes win when taking the Modesty (G3) and concluded 2019 with a second in the First Lady (G1) at Keeneland and a third in the Matriarch (G1) in the Del Mar. The Juddmonte Farms homebred daughter of Dansili is eligible to keep moving forward at age 5, and Florent Geroux will be up.
Nay Lady Nay, last seen taking the Mrs. Revere (G2) at Churchill in late November, rates as a major contender for Chad Brown. The 4-year-old filly concluded last year on a two-race stakes-winning streak, and Jose Ortiz will be up on the Irish-bred daughter of No Nay Never. Altea, second in the Endeavour (G3) and Tom Benson Memorial in her last two, will also represent the Brown stable.
Graham Motion has Grade 2 winners Secret Message and Varenka in the mix. Both will be making their first start since the fall. John Velazquez rides three-time stakes vixen Secret Message, and Javier Castellano guides Varenka.
Elizabeth Way, wire-to-wire scorer The Very One (G3) two back, cuts back in distance for Roger Attfield following a third in the 1 3/8-mile Orchid (G3) at Gulfstream Park. La Signare enters off a rallying triumph in the March 28 Sand Springs S. at Gulfstream, and She’sonthewarpath will seek her third consecutive stakes win after taking the Albert M. Stall Memorial and Tom Benson Memorial at Fair Grounds. Stakes heroine Zofelle, a close second as the favorite in the Sand Springs, is also entered.
