American Filly Aiming For Epsom

This year's G1 Investec Oaks looks likely to have an American challenger, with trainer Kenny McPeek mapping out a plan to the June 2 Epsom Classic for his GI Kentucky Oaks runner-up Daddys Lil Darling (Scat Daddy). The news was first reported in Racing Post and confirmed by McPeek on Wednesday.

Daddys Lil Darling won last year's GII Pocahontas S. and has been second in three Grade Is on the dirt, with a GI Ashland S. runner-up finish preceding her Kentucky Oaks effort in the Churchill Downs slop last Friday. The Normandy Farm homebred has tried the turf just once, finishing sixth in the GIII Florida Oaks in March, and McPeek said he was pleased with the way she trained over the turf gallop at his Magdalena Farm in Lexington on Wednesday.

“She galloped over my grass course here at the farm today,” he said. “We have to make shipping arrangements and we also have another stage of the nomination getting ready to come on May 18. I spoke to [Normandy Farm owner] Mrs. [Nancy] Polk today and she's going to come out and watch her train one day on the grass, so right now we're moving forward.”

“She's pretty adaptable,” McPeek added. “She actually seems to relax a whole lot more on the turf gallops at my place. We can to some extent emulate a European grass course here.”

In addition to her affinity for the grass, McPeek said the Investec Oaks plan was prompted by the lack of Grade I opportunities for 3-year-old fillies in the U.S.

“I think there's more upside to giving this a run than downside,” he said. “The other thing is that none of the runners have ever run at Epsom, so to me in some ways it's a wide- open race.”

While Daddys Lil Darling will be an unknown commodity to European punters she certainly has a pedigree angle to fall back on, being a daughter of Scat Daddy, who has excelled with his European runners which have included Group 1 winners No Nay Never and Lady Aurelia and G2 Coventry S. winner Caravaggio in the last two years. She is out of Miss Hot Salsa (Houston), a stakes winner going 1 1/16 miles on the turf, and is a half-sister to a pair of stakes winners, including the 2015 GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday (Any Given Saturday).