Chelsea Cloisters among Ward's trio in Churchill's new Mamzelle
Trainer Wesley Ward will send out three entrants in the first running of the $100,000 Mamzelle Overnight Stakes for 3-year-old fillies going five furlongs on the Matt Winn Turf Course on Saturday afternoon.
The Mamzelle, which attracted a field of 13, will go as the 10th race on Saturday’s 11-race program with a 5:26 p.m. ET post time.
Two of Ward’s three runners are owned by Gatewood Bell’s Hat Creek Racing: Abyssinian and Chelsea Cloisters.
Chelsea Closiers, who will be ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., and break from post position five, finished third in her 2019 debut in the Limestone Turf Sprint April 12 at Keeneland. She closed 2018 with a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Abyssinian, who won her grass debut by 6 ¾ lengths at Gulfstream Park in February, comes into the Mamzelle off a third-place finish against the boys in the Palisades Turf Sprint at Keeneland on April 4.
Tyler Gaffalione has the mount on Abyssinian and will break from post position nine.
Ward’s third entrant is Bonne Chance Farm’s Iva, who returns to a surface upon which she broke her maiden last year. Julio Garcia has the mount and will break from post position one.
Chief threats to the Ward runners are Klein Racing’s Play On and Bermuda Thoroughbred Racing Limited’s Queen of Bermuda.
Trained by Brad Cox, Play On has won two of three starts on the grass and most recently finished seventh as the favorite in the Limestone Turf Sprint. Shaun Bridgmohan has the mount and will break from post position 12.
A Group 3 winner in England as a 2-year-old, Queen of Bermuda finished fourth here last year in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Trained by Graham Motion, Queen of Bermuda will break from post position 11 and be ridden by Chris Landeros.
The field for the Mamzelle, with riders and weights from the rail out, is: Iva (Garcia, 120), Raintree Starlet (Miguel Mena, 120), Morissette (Adam Beschizza, 118), Kim K (Ricardo Santana Jr., 118), Chelsea Cloisters (Hernandez Jr., 118), Shesomajestic (Stewart Elliott, 118), Catherinethegreat (Julien Leparoux, 118), Change of Control (Gabriel Saez, 118), Abyssinian (Gaffalione, 118), Midnight Fantasy (Erik Barbaran, 120), Queen of Bermuda (IRE) (Landeros, 123), Play On (Bridgmohan, 120) and Old and Costly (Edgar Morales, 118).