Tenma , Anna’s Promise , Ballerina d’Oro , and Fondly breezed April 26 at Churchill Downs in preparation for the May 2 Kentucky Oaks (G1), the most prestigious race in North America for 3-year-old fillies.
Over a drying-out Churchill Downs main track listed as “good” during the exclusive training period reserved for Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby (G1) competitors, Tenma went a half mile in :48 2/5 and Anna’s Promise covered five furlongs in 1:00 2/5. About two hours later, over a track upgraded to fast, Ballerina d’Oro breezed a half-mile in :48 and Fondly five furlongs in 1:02 1/5
West Coast standout Tenma, trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert for owner Baoma Corp., was clocked in splits of :12 and :36. She galloped out five furlongs in 1:01.
“I loved what I saw. She got over the track very well,” Baffert said.
A winner of five of six starts, with her only loss a third in the 2024 Oak Leaf Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park—Tenma enters the Kentucky Oaks following three consecutive victories in graded company. She took the Starlet Stakes (G2) late last year at Los Alamitos Race Course before capturing the Feb. 2 Las Virgenes Stakes (G3) and April 5 Santa Anita Oaks (G2), both at Santa Anita.
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Her winning time in the Santa Anita Oaks was slow—1 1/16 miles in 1:46.15—which Baffert attributes to her not being as comfortable over a surface that he said was deep and tiring. Other races from the Nyquist filly were faster.
Baffert is a three-time Oaks winner, having captured the race with Silverbulletday (1999), Plum Pretty (2011, and Abel Tasman (2017).
Take Charge Milady’s Oaks Participation in Doubt
Trainer Kenny McPeek said Take Charge Milady is dealing with a foot abscess and will enter the Kentucky Oaks but may not be able to run.
“We’re dealing with that and we don’t know if we have enough time to get that together,” he said Saturday morning. “There’s a chance she could miss the race. It’s minor, but at the same time, timing’s a little bit tricky.”
The Take Charge Indy filly owned by James Ball, Magdalena Racing, and Kenneth Rhodes broke her maiden at Oaklawn Park before winning the Martha Washington Stakes there. She was 10th in the Honeybee Stakes (G3) before a quarter crack led to her skipping Oaklawn’s Fantasy Stakes (G2) and running in the Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, after the quarter crack was stitched, where she finished second.
“She ran a really good race in the Ashland, a race that justifies her being a Kentucky Oaks filly, but the little abscess—it’s just a small (one) at the top of her (right front) coronet band—the timing’s really bad,” McPeek said.
McPeek said the abscess will be treated, “but there’s not a lot you can do with it, really. It’s in a tricky spot. This is like someone having a bad hangnail, and it’s nothing life-threatening whatsoever. When you’re dealing with a horse’s hoof, quarter cracks are a pretty common issue that we deal with. But typically we can fix them and certainly with a little bit of time you can fix them. But at this point we’re going to enter her, and we’re going to see what kind of week we have. And if we have a good week, great, and if we don’t, then she might not run.”
The filly trained and cooled out well on Saturday, McPeek said, “but that little abscess wants to irritate her. … We’ve just got to see if we can get her 100% by next weekend.”
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