Sheer Beauty Sitting On Ready

At the moment she is a filly that her connections hope will find a way into the 14-horse starting gate for the 136th Kentucky Oaks, but Sheer Beauty continues to train like a filly who could make some noise if she should find a way to run in America’s premiere race for 3-year-old fillies on Friday, April 30.

L.T.B. Inc. and Miles Childers’ gray daughter of Mizzen Mast breezed four furlongs Saturday over a “good” track in :48.40 just after 7 a.m., a training move that ranked 14th of 54 at the distance. Jockey James Graham was aboard for the work as Sheer Beauty covered the distance in fractional times of :12 .20, :24 40, :36.60 and galloped out five furlongs in  1:01.80.

Trainer and co-owner Bernie Flint beamed over the work by Sheer Beauty, who is coming off a dead-heat third-place finish with fellow Oaks hopeful Seeking the Title in the Fair Grounds Oaks (GII), but was more subdued when he talked of the filly’s position on the list of graded earnings for Oaks contenders.  She current is tied for 21st for a race that is limited to 14 fillies with preference given to fillies with highest total earnings in graded stakes races.

“Graham jumped off and said, ‘Good to go’,” said Flint.  “He really liked the way she went.  We [jogged] a mile before we breezed her and she galloped out in a minute-one and a couple.  He didn’t really ask her to run – he said he moved his hands a little bit.”

Flint said he would continue to train Sheer Beauty as if she would make the 14-filly Oaks field.  He said the Eight Belles (GIII) at 7 ½-furlongs on Kentucky Derby Day would be a fallback position – but not one he is anxious to pursue.  He believes Sheer Beauty would thrive at the Oaks distance of 1 1/8-miles.

"I really don’t want to go back to a sprinting mile, and that’s little short of a sprinting mile,” said Flint.  “I want to go around two turns.  If I don’t get in and it works out that way, it just works out that way.  There’s nothing I can do about it.”