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Pick Pony | April 22, 2024, 9:09 p.m.
The Bewitch Stakes is an annual thoroughbred horse race (G3) for fillies and mares who are four years old or older. It is held in April during the spring meeting at Keeneland Race Course, Lexington, Kentucky. The race takes place on the turf and covers a distance of 1+1⁄2 miles. The event offers a purse of $300,000.
The race is called Bewitch, in honor of Calumet Farm’s famous Hall of Fame filly. As a two-year-old, Bewitch won her first two races at Keeneland. The first event was a maiden named The Dixiana Purse, which took place on April 10th, 1947. It was a four-furlong race that Bewitch won easily.
The following week, Bewitch won the Thoroughbred Club Dinner Purse, equaling the track record, and later became U.S. Champion Two-Year-Old Filly for 1947. Keeneland honored her with the inaugural Bewitch Stakes in 1962.
The 2024 Bewitch G3 runs 4/26/2024 at 4:07 PM ET at Keeneland. It is the 8th race on the card.
Brad Cox brought Chop Chop, the prodigy of City of Light (who has a stakes win from the 2019 Pegasus World Cup G1), from a 2nd place finish at the Latonia Stakes LS. Chop Chop lost some speed in that race, which she seems to do when pressured by the competition. She will feel a lot of pressure at this year’s Bewitch. Can she hold up, or will she buckle?
We suspect the longer route will not be in her favor, but it’s hard to question Brad Cox’s wisdom. It looks to us that the works may have peaked a bit early, too (or possibly Brad let her coast a bit prior to this race). And, wait a minute, Chop Chop has only raced on turf one other time, way back in March 2023, which resulted in a measly 3rd place finish against much weaker competition. Those are three doubts we have against Brad, so yeah, we are going to question his infinite wisdom (with our heads tucked, waiting for that lightning bold to strike). We think Chop Chop will finish slightly out of the money.
The Irish Mare Queens Command has been inconsisted her entire career. She can’t seem to decide if she prefers dirt or turf, sprints or routes. She’s never been tested at this distance either. However, they moved her from 1 mile to 1 1/4 mile and into a stronger class and she still finished 2nd at the Santa Anita Stakes. Her works are improving and she has excellent guidance in the irons with Luis Saez. Still, she lacks speed, and her late pace is on a downtrend.
In a race where many of the fastest horses are exhibiting declining speed trends, Tower Bridge is a breath of fresh air. At Gulfstream Park’s Orchid G3, Tower Bridge recorded her best time ever - on her first run on turf. Unfortunately, it was still only good enough for a sixth-place finish, and that’s generally what we see all around with TB. Speed and pace are all on the upswing, but she still trails most of her competitors. A finish out of the money is expected, but with a bit more experience, this 4-year-old filly should be ready to strut her stuff on the tote board - just not today.
She’s been off for more than five months, however, her works seem to be peaking just in time for his return to the track. Was this enough time to correct that declining trend in speed? Probably not. She’ll finish out of the money by a few positions.
Rising speed and pace numbers with a knack for turf make this one an attractive bet. Lovely Princess possesses excellent speed, just a tad bit behind War Like Goddess but hasn’t favored this distance in the past. Still, the shape seems good for her and she’s put in some strong 5f works to prep for the longer distance. She’ll finish in the money, likely second behind War Like Goddess.
The horse with the terrifying name looks to be a terror for his competition. War Like Goddess comes to us via English Channel, the Todd Pletcher-trained prodigy whose short-lived career included stakes wins at the 2007 Breeder’s Cup Turf (G1), 2007 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1), 2007 United Nations (G1), 2006 United Nations (G1), and the 2006 Turf Classic Stakes (G1). War Like Goddess was bred for turf and is easily the fastest horse in this race.
She’s coming off a 6-month layoff, a bit longer than her usual 2-month rest. That’s concerning given her age and a 7th-place finish in the Breeders Cup G1 race at Santa Anita. Was the outmost post position 13 the problem, the slight slip when she crossed the dirt on the first turn, the jammed-up pack coming down the stretch, or the bump on the attempted pass? Or did George Krikorian bring her back to the track too soon (she seems to prefer much more than a 30-day rest).
We think her post position and the form we expect to see in this race will be more favorable to War Like Goddess. And we think this 7-year-old mare still has some gas in the tank. It’s War Like Goddess for the win.
If an award for “Most Improved” were given, Commandandcontrol would take home the gold. We’d be excited to see this six-year-old mare move to turf and a longer route except that late pace of hers is not looking so good. With such a short rest between his last races, you’d think Jim Corrigan considers him a moneybags except this move to 1 1/2 miles is going to backfire on him. Toss.
We can’t wait to hear the announcer mispronounce her name. And yeah, we’ll likely hear her name mentioned quite a bit in this race. Vergara just came from a 3rd place finish in the 2023 Long Island G3. She’s fared similarly in other G2/G3 races on turf. In fact, she’s 71% in the money on turf with more than $1 million in earnings.
Consistent hard works and a nice, long rest might provide the corrections Vergara needs and Prat Flavien in the saddle is the perfect choice to guide her to the finish line. We think she’ll see a spike in speed and performance in this race, too. A win here would put him close to $1.5 million. Can she do it? She can - but won’t. But she’ll still run well enough to finish in the money.
We’d just about written Tic Tic Tic Boom out of the picture but then she turns around and gives us some of the best performances of her career. She’s found her way in the brown stuff and now she’s looking to test the turf waters. Sure, she seems to have aged like a fine wine but the move to turf is inexplicable and it’s certainly no speciality for Tim Girten with a negative ROI in turf starts. Unless Girten knows something we don’t (quite likely given TTT Boom’s recent surprise performances), we don’t think she’ll make it on the board this time. Toss.
1. War Like Goddess 2. Lovely Princess 3. Vergara 4. Chop Chop 5. Tower Bridge 6. Atomic Blonde 7. Queens Command 8. Tic Tic Tic Boom 9. Commandandcontrol