Envoutante added to a big year for both her trainer and sire, turning in a dominant front-running performance under the Twin Spires Thursday. Wasting no time seizing the early advantage from her rail post, the dark bay doled out opening splits of :24.25 and :48.95. She shut the door on her competition heading for home, and cantered clear from there to assert her superiority. Odds-on Bonny South, who took the GII Fair Grounds Oaks earlier this term and was most recently second to Envoutante's stablemate Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) in the GI Alabama S. before a narrow second in the GII Black-Eyed Susan S. Oct. 3, again had to settle for second best at odds-on.
“It was my first time on her for a race, but I've worked her and worked against her before, too, with Swiss Skydiver,” noted winning pilot Brian Hernandez, Jr. “She really kicked away from the field today and was very dominant. At the three-eighths pole I got her into the bit again and she just kicked away. Riding for [trainer] Kenny [McPeek] is easy and he didn't really give a lot of instructions. When the gates opened, she put herself into a great spot.”
Envoutante was a romping third-out graduate at Gulfstream in April, and took a local allowance two starts later May 29. She was third in Keeneland's GI Ashland S. July 11, and fourth in the Aug. 15 Alabama. She made the grade in the Sept. 27 GIII Remington Park Oaks, scoring from off the pace as a heavy favorite.
“She was one-for-one at Churchill coming into this race,” said McPeek, who has also been represented this year by a granddaughter of Envoutante's sire Uncle Mo in GI Darley Alcibiades S. romper Simply Ravishing (Laoban). “We were very confident by the way she was working in the mornings and hoping she was going to put it together in the afternoon. She's worked against Swiss Skydiver and has really done well in her training. She's done a lot of traveling this year and got her graded stakes win in the Remington Oaks so winning another one was very special.”
Thursday, Churchill Downs
FALLS CITY S.-GII, $200,000, Churchill Downs, 11-26, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/8m, 1:49.11, ft.
1–ENVOUTANTE, 118, f, 3, by Uncle Mo
1st Dam: Enchante (MSP, $154,172), by Bluegrass Cat
2nd Dam: Wear, by Arch
3rd Dam: Abrade, by Mr. Prospector
($250,000 Ylg '18 KEESEP). O-Walking L Thoroughbreds, LLC &
Three Chimneys Farm; B-Jumping Jack Racing LLC (KY);
T-Kenneth G. McPeek; J-Brian Joseph Hernandez, Jr. $120,280.
Lifetime Record: GISP, 9-4-1-2, $336,028. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Bonny South, 120, f, 3, Munnings–Touch the Star, by Tapit.
O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-Brad H. Cox. $38,800.
3–Another Broad, 121, m, 5, Include–Dynamic Deputy, by
Deputy Minister. ($340,000 4yo '19 KEENOV). O-Farfellow
Farm, Ltd.; B-Fitzhugh, LLC (MD); T-Steven M. Asmussen.
$19,400.
Margins: 6, 3HF, HD. Odds: 2.60, 0.80, 24.70.
Also Ran: Our Super Freak, Smooth With a Kick, Over Thinking, Market Rumor, Cash Out. Scratched: High Regard. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
Pedigree Notes:
Envoutante is one of 14 graded stakes winners this year–tops in North America–for Coolmore's Uncle Mo. She is one of six graded winners out of Bluegrass Cat mares. Dam Enchante was a hard-knocking MSP sprinter and hails from the female family of Forty Niner. She has an unraced 2-year-old filly named Marla (Frosted) and a yearling colt by Classic Empire. Enchante was bred to Uncle Mo's son Nyquist for 2021.
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