Oliver Saddles Personal Diary, Annulment in Bewitch
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With four wins, one second and two thirds in 15 starts during the first 13 days of Keeneland’s 2016 Spring Meet, trainer Vicki Oliver has recorded her best season here to date.
Three days remain in the meet, and Oliver has three chances to add to that total. She has two horses entered today and on Friday will send out a pair of runners in the $150,000 Bewitch (G3), Personal Diary and Annulment. One of those mares could give Oliver her first Keeneland stakes win.
Winner of the 2014 Del Mar Oaks (G1), Personal Diary is a 5-year-old daughter of City Zip who is a homebred racing for Oliver’s father, G. Watts Humphrey Jr., and St. George Farm Racing. Humphrey also bred and races Annulment, a 5-year-old Broken Vow mare whose dam, After Thought, is a half-sister to 2013 Jenny Wiley (G1) winner Centre Court.
Humphrey won the 2008 Bewitch with Communique.
Personal Diary has made a total of seven starts over the Keeneland turf in her career and was third in the 2014 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (G1). The Bewitch marks her first race after winning a 1½-mile allowance here on April 13. Oliver believes that performance will set her up well for the Bewitch.
“The best race of her career is when she came back in two weeks and won the Del Mar Oaks, so this is coming back on two weeks,” she said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Florent Geroux will ride Personal Diary, who will break from post 10 in the 12-horse race.
Annulment, who won a division of the 2014 Hatoof Stakes at Arlington, has two wins in five starts on the Keeneland turf. The Bewitch will mark the 2016 debut for Annulment, who drew post four with Gary Stevens aboard.
Oliver, who sent out the first of her 30 Keeneland winners during the 2002 Fall Meet, is understandably pleased with the season she’s currently having.
“Very much so,” she said.
GALLOPING OUT
Brass Hat, whose final career win came in Keeneland’s 2010 Sycamore (G3), is scheduled to make his debut as a show horse on May 8 during the Thoroughbred Horse Show Association event at the Kentucky Horse Park. The 15-year-old gelding, who won 10 races in 40 starts and earned $2,173,561, will be ridden by 12-year-old Jett Bradley, daughter of his trainer, William “Buff” Bradley.
Source: Keeneland
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