Bradley will try to win Groupie Doll Stakes with Crown D’ Oro

Buff Bradley raised, trained, co-owned and bred Groupie Doll. Now he’ll try to win Ellis Park’s Grade 3 stakes named in honor of his two-time female sprint champion.

Among the fillies and mares being pointed for the $100,000 Groupie Doll on Saturday, Aug. 6, is Crown D’ Oro. The 4-year-old daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, who will be in her first stakes, is trained by Bradley and owned by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm, which bought Groupie Doll for $3.1 million from Bradley and his partners at Keeneland’s 2013 November sale. 

Bradley took over Crown D’ Oro’s training this spring. The filly had struggled in allowance races on grass but has done well in her three starts back on dirt, including winning a June 5 entry-level allowance race and finishing a good third in a second-level allowance July 1 at Churchill Downs. The top two finishers that day, victorious Conquest Curlgirl and Emmajestic, also are expected in what shapes up as a deep edition of the Groupie Doll. 

“It’s kind of neat and ironic that Mandy owns the horse,” Bradley said Friday at Churchill Downs. “We thought as good as she’s doing, we’d take her into the race fresh and have a shot to take on the big girls. It’s a good field. It would make for a good story if we happen to jump up and get the total prize. But I think Mandy would be very satisfied if we could get some black type (stakes placings) on the filly. She’s a very nice filly.”

In the first of nine graded stakes she won in her 23-race career, Groupie Doll captured Ellis Park’s only graded stakes in 2011 when it was called the Gardenia. She made her 5-year-old debut in the mile stakes off an 8 1/2-month layoff, and while Groupie Doll finished third at 1-5 odds, the race got her back on track to successfully defend her title in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.

The Gardenia was renamed the Groupie Doll last year.

“It’s a big honor,” Bradley said. “People call it the Groupie Doll. I think back to the history of the race. When I was a kid, I was always thinking, ‘Man, I’d love to win the Gardenia. That’s the biggest race at Ellis Park.’ Now that it’s named the Groupie Doll, it’s really meaningful for me.”

The Groupie Doll field will be drawn Sunday. Also on the Aug. 6 card is the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile for 2-year-olds.

Louisville-based trainer Paul McGee has gotten off to a fast start this meet, with three wins and a third in four starts.

“It’s fun when you get on a roll like that, because of the rollercoaster ride” that is racing horses, he said. “I feel like I’ve got some live ones coming up, too. I’ve got a live one Saturday and a live one Sunday. I look to build on it even more.”

McGee has the favorite in Saturday’s third race for maidens on turf in Star Quality, who has three seconds and a third in four starts. He has the second choice in Speak Softly in Sunday’s seventh, an allowance race for fillies and mares. Both horses are owned by Samantha Siegel’s Jay Em Ess Stables.

But McGee doesn’t expect to make a run at leading trainer, with Steve Asmussen in front with seven wins out of 26 starts heading into Friday’s card.

“I’m not thinking along those lines, believe me,” McGee said with a laugh. “I’m just chugging along, wanting to win a few more. No, no grand illusions.”

McGee, a lifelong Louisvillian, is approaching the 1,000-win threshold, with 991 victories in a career dating to 1987. He has some promising 2-year-olds which could run either late in the Ellis meet or at Churchill Downs’ September meet.

But given horse racing’s usual rollercoaster, not everything is completely smooth. McGee’s stable star, multiple graded-stakes winner Majestic Harbor, sustained a minor but untimely foot bruise and will miss running in either Saratoga’s Grade I Whitney or the $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes. Both are Aug. 6.

Saturday: “Making of a Racehorse: Let’s get started!” Fans get a close-up view of horses schooling at the starting gate, followed by a barn visit and meet-and-greet with jockey Didiel Osorio and his agent, Jose Santos Jr. All ages welcome. Starts at 7:30 AM CT, with parking in the southern lot by the Ohio River levee. All afternoon: Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund Day and Ladies’ Day in the Gardenia Room.

Sunday: Military Appreciation Day presented by Old National Bank. Active and retired military can sign up to win LED televisions from H.H. Gregg. Given away by drawing will be a 48-inch Samsung smart TV with sound bar; a 43-inch LG smart TV, a 23-inch TV and two 19-inch TVs.