Daddys Lil Darling followed up a good-looking maiden win at Ellis Park with an off-the-pace score in the muddy GIII Pocahontas S., punching her ticket for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and completing a sweep of the day's juvenile stakes for easy last-out Ellis winners. Not This Time (Giant's Causeway) backed up a 10-length Henderson maiden romp with a sensational in the GIII Iroquois S. earlier on the card.
Closing to be fourth going 5 1/2 furlongs in her debut here June 24, the homebred romped by eight lengths in an off-the-turfer at Ellis July 29. Adding Lasix as the third choice in this stakes debut, Daddys Lil Darling came away well and dropped in toward the rail on the clubhouse turn as Bling on the Music blitzed through strong fractions of :23.39 and :47.50. Sixth heading into the far bend, the bay moved in tandem with favored Dream Dancing (Tapit) and tipped out four wide into the stretch. Reeling in the tiring pacesetter at the furlong pole, Daddys Lil Darling hung tough to deny the bid of Ever So Clever to her inside.
“She was holding on, but she was getting a little tired because I moved a little earlier to keep (Dream Dancing) from boxing me in and it was kind of taking its toll on me a little bit,” winning rider Corey Lanerie said. “But she had a lot of heart. She felt great. She's a charm to ride and has a lot of class. I think a little kid could ride her.”
Trainer Ken McPeek, regarding his filly's future engagements, offered: “I don't think I'll run her in the [GI] Alcibiades [Oct. 7 at Keeneland],” McPeek said. “She's a real lean filly; she doesn't carry much weight. I think we'd be a lot more prudent to wait for the Breeders' Cup.”
Pedigree Notes…
Daddys Lil Darling is by the popular, late sire Scat Daddy, and is out of a stakes winning and graded stakes-placed turf dam. She produced 2015's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mongolian Saturday and is out of GSW Miss High Blade (Highland Blade). That mare is a half-sister to Japanese MSW and sire Wild Bluster (Jpn) (Wild Again) and produced SW/GSP Mr. Broad Blade (Broad Brush). Miss Hot Salsa has not produced a foal since Daddys Lil Darling and was last bred to Exchange Rate in 2014.
Saturday, Churchill Downs
POCAHONTAS S.-GII, $200,000, CD, 9-17, 2yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:47.19, my.
1–#@DADDYS LIL DARLING, 118, f, 2, by Scat Daddy
1st Dam: Miss Hot Salsa (SW & GSP, $227,756), by Houston
2nd Dam: Miss High Blade, by Highland Blade
3rd Dam: Darling Miss Q., by Alydar
O/B-Normandy Farm (KY); T-Kenneth G. McPeek; J-Corey J.
Lanerie. $119,040. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $144,165. *1/2
to Mongolian Saturday (Any Given Saturday), GISW,
$1,039,681; and Victoryasecret (Victory Gallop), MSW,
$242,485. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A.[bullet ad=”kbif-g2g3″]2–Ever So Clever, 118, f, 2, Medaglia d'Oro–Foxy Danseur, by
Mr. Greeley. O-Clearview Stable LLC; B-Clearsky Farms (KY);
T-Steven M. Asmussen. $38,400.[bullet ad=”webb-carroll-another-wctc-grad”][bullet ad=”burleson-12-keenov”]3–Bling On the Music, 120, f, 2, Too Much Bling–Soft Music, by
Action This Day. ($95,000 2yo '16 TTAAPR). O-Keene
Thoroughbreds LLC; B-W. S. Farish (TX); T-J. R. Caldwell.
$19,200.
Margins: HF, 3 3/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 3.90, 5.00, 2.80.
Also Ran: Dream Dancing, Jordan's Henny, Sully's Dream, I'mluckysgirl, One Thirty One, Jet Away Sue. Scratched: Someday Soon. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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