McCraken's sister, Four Graces, gets stakes try in Churchill's Dogwood
Whitham Thoroughbreds’ Four Graces, an impressive winner of a first-level allowance event three weeks ago at Churchill Downs, will attempt her first try at stakes competition as she tops eight 3-year-old fillies that were entered in Saturday’s 45th running of the $100,000 Dogwood (G3).
The seven-furlong Dogwood, carded as Race 10 of 11 at 5:50 p.m. (all times Eastern) on Saturday, is a designated prep race on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks and will award the Top 4 finishers 20-8-4-2 points. The co-featured event on the card is the $100,000 Aristides (Listed), which goes as Race 8. First post is 1 p.m.
Four Graces, a daughter of Majesticperfection, debuted as a 7-1 winner at Gulfstream Park in March. The half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner McCraken finished fourth in her second start at Gulfstream but quickly rebounded with an emphatic 1 3/4-length score on May 16 at Churchill Downs under Julien Leparoux.
“She’s an extremely talented filly,” trainer Ian Wilkes said. “With her family we had high hopes she’d turn out well on the racetrack and when she won on debut we thought we could have something special.”
Leparoux will ride Four Graces from post position No. 2.
Chief among Four Graces rivals that entered the Dogwood is Hronis Racing’s Edgeway, a winner in two of her three starts including a 1 ½-length score in a first-level allowance at Oaklawn Park. Also entered were Three Chimney Farm LLC’s Magic Dance, the winner of last year’s Debutante and third-place finisher in the Adirondack (G2), and Rafael Lopez’s Maryland-based Wide Country Stakes winner Naughty Thoughts.