Carl R. Moore Management's Finley'sluckycharm (Twirling Candy) looms squarely as the one to beat in Saturday's GIII Winning Colors S. at Churchill Downs for a variety of reasons–primarily a four-for-four record over the track and a near-flawless docket around one turn. The dark bay captured five of her first six starts, with her lone hiccup coming traveling a route of ground in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. last February, and became a stakes winner in the six-furlong Dream Supreme S. beneath the Twin Spires Nov. 25. The Bret Calhoun trainee closed out her stellar 2016 season with a hard-fought runner-up finish behind 'TDN Rising Star' Constellation (Bellamy Road) in the GI La Brea S. at Santa Anita Dec. 26. Given some time on the sidelines during the winter months, Finley'sluckycharm recently resurfaced to capture the trip-and-track Roxelana S. in Louisville Apr. 29 and seeks to notch her first graded stakes success Saturday.
In the Winning Colors, the 3-5 morning line favorite will encounter three rivals she previously defeated in the Roxelana, including runner-up Athena (Street Sense), who finished with interest to miss by 3/4 of a length. Six Column Stables and Randall Bloch's Sweetgrass (Street Sense) checked in a respectable fourth in the May 6 GI Humana Distaff and cuts back to the shortest distance of her career for her third start of 2017.
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