Churchill: Two Sharp goes gate to wire in Winning Colors
Two Sharp broke alertly from the gate and led every step of the way Monday in the 23rd running of the Grade 3, $250,000 Winning Colors Stakes at Churchill Downs to notch a 3 1/2-length victory over long shot Benedetta.
Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Junior Alvarado rode Two Sharp to victory for trainer Phil Bauer and owner Richard Rigney’s Rigney Racing while clocking six furlongs in a swift 1:08.75.
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The winner of the autumn running of the Chilukki (G3), Two Sharp made her 4-year-old debut in the Winning Colors. She broke from the outside stall in the field of seven fillies and mares and zipped to the front through quick fractions of 21.14 and 43.99 seconds, the fastest half-mile in the race that dates to 2004. She maintained a 2 1/2-length advantage up the backstretch.
Hope Road, the 4-5 favorite after finishing second to Kopion in the Derby City Distaff (G1) on the Kentucky Derby undercard, chased Two Sharp throughout but could not close into the margin. Benedetta rallied to edge Hope Road for the place by three-quarters of a length.
“It’s not about how fast you’re going, it’s about how you’re going when you’re going fast,” Alvarado said. “She was incredible today. She broke sharp and just took me to the lead and did everything so easily.”
The victory was worth $151,520 and boosted Two Sharp’s earnings to $518,218 from a record of 6: 4-2-0.
“She’s so talented and to run that well fresh was really exciting to see,” Bauer said. “It’s obviously a great starting point. She’s ultra-talented. She’s proved that she can handle at least a mile, so we'll see where we’ll go from here.”
Two Sharp was the 9-5 second betting choice and returned $5.82, $4.36 and $2.54. Benedetta, ridden by Keith Asmussen at odds of 23-1, paid $12.32 and $4.42. Hope Road, under Florent Geroux, returned $2.10. Brightwork finished fourth and was followed by Mink’s Palace, Miss Arlington and Into Champagne. Easy Red and Harbor Springs were scratched.
Two Sharp is a daughter of Twirling Candy out of Distorted Humor mare Double Sharp and was bred in Kentucky by Woods Edge Farm.
The race is named for Eugene Klein’s Winning Colors, the most recent filly to have won the Kentucky Derby when she beat the boys in the 114th running of the run for the roses in 1988 for the Hall of Fame tandem of trainer D. Wayne Lukas and jockey Gary Stevens.