Any chance of Testa Rossi to the Blue Grass?

[ColonelShillito]

Mr. Covello,

Congratulations on the dominant performance of your beautiful filly Testa Rossi. She has lived up to the hype and will hopefully have a say in future Grade 1s this summer and fall.

With that said, I wonder if you and your team had considered entering your filly in the Blue Grass Stakes rather than the Ashland Stakes next month at Keeneland.

The stretch of the 9 furlong Blue Grass would seem to favor Testa Rossi\'s late kick as opposed to the 8.5 furlong Ashland. Of course, 9 furlong races at Kee utilize the entire stretch of the Keeneland track while 8.5 furlong races end in mid-stretch. In years past, this track layout for 8.5 furlong races allow an advantage to front-runners (see the last 6 editions - Emollient, Karlovy Vary, Lilacs and Lace, Evening Jewel, Hooh Why, and Little Belle). Of those six winners, only Little Belle relinquished the lead at any point in the race to my knowledge, and that was late in the race.

Nine furlong races at Keeneland generally favor closers and in the polytrack era, nearly all of the renditions of the BlueGrass have gone to late runners.

Not sure what # she earned with her dominant win at Tampa, but I\'m guessing that a jump up to a TG2 or 3 would be a competitive fig to win a race like the BlueGrass on poly. I would think that might be within Testa Rossi\'s reach with a month of preparation. But, easy for me to say.

I hate to play armchair quarterback, but that\'s part of the fun of interaction with owners, trainers, etc. Good luck with your filly and all of her future endeavors.

[covelj70]

Hey Colonel,

thanks for the really nice message.

Are you sure you haven\'t wire tapped some of the conversations that our group has had on this subject?

We have had this exact conversation multiple times even before her race on Saturday and that\'s why we nominated her to both the Blue Grass and the Ashland.

I very much agree with your view on typically speed favoring nature of the Ashland and that\'s one of the reasons we took a shot running Lilacs and Lace in that race.  We were just hoping she would hit the board that day but the speed never came back and she won the thing on the front end.

We will continue to think things through but first things first, we need to get her up to Keenland and make sure she trains well over the poly before we decide to run there at all.  I know it\'s typically been kind to turf horses but last year, we felt like it was a bit different than years past and it was tough to figure out what kind of horse liked the track

Stay tuned and thanks again for the thoughts.

Jim

[Silver Charm]

I saw where Bobby\'s Kitten is heading to that race.
Good Luck Jim!!