Couplet

It was a battle of homebred debutantes down to the wire in Friday's fourth race on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill, as Godolphin's PASSERINE (f, 3, Nyquist--Al Andaleeb, by Bernardini) got just the better of OXO Equine's Battis Grove (Practical Joke) following an enervatiing final-furlong throwdown. Debuting at odds of 28-5, Passerine took up a position around midfield, with Battis Grove a couple of lengths ahead of her as the field raced down the Churchill backstretch. Working her way into it nicely while covering a bit of ground on...

4th-CD, $120K, Msw, 3yo/up, f&m, 7f, 2:00 p.m. ET. Juddmonte homebred COUPLET (Gun Runner) heads to the post with some strong drills under her belt in Louisville for trainer Michael McCarthy. The farm acquired the first-time starter's dam, Canadian champion 2-year-old & GISW Spring in the Air (Spring At Last), for $1.65-million during the 2015 Keeneland November sale. Couplet's extended female family includes GI Spinaway Stakes winner Sweet Loretta (Tapit) and GSW Nafisa (Quality Road). TJCIS PPS 2nd-CD, $134K, OC80K/N2X, 3yo/up, 1m, 1:00 p.m. ET. A $300,000 2024 Keeneland September...