By Joe Bianca
After capturing last Saturday's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland with his star 3-year-old turfer Cambier Parc (Medaglia d'Oro), Chad Brown will dip into his 'B' team to start a trio of contenders in Friday's GIII Pin Oak Valley View S. for sophomore fillies on the Lexington lawn.
Leading the charge for the three-time defending Eclipse champion conditioner is Peter Brant's Blowout (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Third or better in all seven career starts, the bay has never been beaten more than a half-length and looks for her first graded stakes success. Winner of the Wild Applause S. June 22 at Belmont, she was a narrow runner-up in the GIII Lake George S. July 19 at Saratoga and third in the GII Lake Placid S. Aug. 17 at the Spa. Returning downstate in the Pebbles S. Sept. 14, she scored a convincing wire-to-wire tally and projects as the controlling speed once again here.
Klaravich Stables' Catch a Bid (Real Solution) looms large as well. A dominant 4 1/2-length victress on debut June 6 at Belmont while getting her final quarter-mile in a sizzling :21.71, the $30,000 Fasig-Tipton October buy just missed when second by a neck to next-out Lake Placid heroine Varenka (Ghostzapper) in a Saratoga allowance July 14. Stepped up into stakes company in the Riskaverse S. there Aug. 22, she rallied into a slow pace to get up by a head. Filling out the Brown troika is Martin Schwartz's Turf War (War Front), who went from last to first to upset the Christie Cat S. going six furlongs at Big Sandy Sept. 6.
Katsumi Yoshida's The Mackem Bullet (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}) makes her first start since capturing a local graded stakes in the spring. Runner-up at 25-1 in last fall's G1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park S., the bay was sixth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf before being transferred from the Brian Ellison outfit to Wesley Ward. Dominating a Turfway optional claimer Dec. 31, she was fourth against males in the John Battaglia Memorial S. there Feb. 15 before relishing soft turf to take the GII Appalachian S. here Apr. 7.
Two other graded winners rate chances despite being drawn outside. Lady Prancealot (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), who captured the GIII Honeymoon S. June 1 at Santa Anita before running third to the aforementioned Cambier Parc in the GI Del Mar Oaks, drew the 12-post, while Hard Legacy (Hard Spun), victress of the GIII Regret S. June 15 at Churchill before checking in fifth in the Del Mar Oaks, pulled post 13.
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