Uncle Mo’s Envoutante All by Herself in Falls City

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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Envoutante Draws Clear From Bonny South To Win Falls City

Three Chimneys Farm and Walking L Thoroughbreds' 3-year-old filly Envoutante led every step of the way in a powerful six-length win over 4-5 favorite Bonny South in Thursday's 105th running of the $200,000 Falls City (Grade 2), the traditional Thanksgiving Day fixture for fillies and mares at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Trained by Kenny McPeek and ridden by Brian Hernandez Jr., Envoutante ran 1 1/8 miles over a fast track in 1:49.11 – the fastest Falls City since Silent Eskimo's stakes record of 1:48.85 in 1999.

Breaking from the rail in the field of eight fillies and mares, Envoutante went right to the front and dictated a modest pace of :24.25, :48.95 and 1:13.21 while maintaining a half-length advantage over Our Super Freak, who was followed early on by Market Rumor, Bonny South, Smooth With a Kick, Cash Out, Another Broad and Over Thinking. Leaving the far turn, Envoutante was met by the pressers but she had plenty left and widened her advantage to easily draw away in the stretch.

“It was my first time on her for a race but I've worked her and worked against her before, too, with (Preakness Stakes winner) Swiss Skydiver,” said Hernandez, who also won the 2015 Falls City aboard Ahh Chocolate. “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 Kenny 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 the 5-2 second betting choice and paid $7.20, $3.20 and $3. Fair Grounds Oaks (GII) winner Bonny South, ridden by Florent Geroux, returned $2.60 and $2.20. Another Broad was another 3 ½ lengths back in third under Ricardo Santana Jr. and paid $5.60.

Our Super Freak, Smooth Wick a Kick, Over Thinking, Market Rumor and Cash Out completed the order of finish. High Regard was a late scratch.

Envoutante won the $100,000 Remington Park Oaks (G3) in her previous start on Sept. 27 and placed third behind Speech and Venetian Harbor in the $400,000 Ashland (G1) in July. The Falls City was her first race against elders.

“She was 1-for-1 at Churchill coming into this race,” said McPeek, who collected his first Falls City win. “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.”

With the Falls City win, Envoutante improved her record to 9-4-1-2. Thursday's $120,280 first prize jumped her earnings to $336,028.

Envoutante is a dark bay or brown daughter of Uncle Mo out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Enchante. She was bred in Kentucky by Jumping Jack Racing LLC.

Racing at Churchill Downs continues Friday with the popular day-after Thanksgiving card highlighted by the 146th running of the $500,000 Clark (GI) for older horses.

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Bonny South Taking On Elders For First Time In Thursday’s Falls City

Juddmonte Farms' $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks (Grade 2) winner Bonny South tops a competitive field of nine fillies and mares that were entered in Thursday's 105th running of the $200,000 Falls City (G2) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

The 1 1/8-mile Falls City has been run on Thanksgiving Day beneath the historic Twin Spires since 1978. It will go as the featured event in Race 10 of 11 with a post time of 3:53 p.m. Eastern. There will be a special first post of 11:30 a.m. for the holiday program.

Bonny South was a highly-touted 3-year-old filly last winter following her 2 ¼-length victory in the Fair Grounds Oaks. Following nearly four months on the sidelines, the daughter of Munnings returned in the $400,000 Ashland (G1) where she finished fourth behind Speech, Venetian Harbor and fellow Falls City rival Envoutante.

Following her race in the Ashland, Cox shipped Bonny South to Saratoga where she was the runner-up behind Swiss Skydiver in the $500,000 Alabama (G1). Bonny South will enter Thursday's Falls City following a narrow defeat in the Oct. 3, $250,000 Black Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico. This will mark her first race against elders.

Jockey Florent Geroux has the call on Bonny South who will break from post position No. 3.

Cox will attempt to win his second straight Falls City following Mylady Curlin's 2 ¼-length score in last year's event.

Chief among Bonny South's rivals in the Falls City is Walking L Thoroughbreds LLC and Three Chimneys Farm's $100,000 Remington Park Oaks (G3) winner Envoutante. Trained by Kenny McPeek, Envoutante has faced Bonny South twice in her eight-race career. Envoutante got the better of Bonny South by two lengths in the Ashland but was defeated by 7 ¼ lengths as the fourth-place finisher in the Alabama.

Brian Hernandez Jr. rides Envoutante in the Falls City from the rail.

Also entered in the field of fillies and mares is Farfellow Farm's multiple graded stakes placed Another Broad, who will make her first start under the care of Steve Asmussen; LBD Stable and David Ingordo's $125,000 Shuvee (G3) third-place finisher Our Super Freak; and G. Watts Humphrey Jr.'s graded stakes placed duo of Cash Out and High Regard, who are joined in the gate by his three-time winnerOver Thinking.

The complete field for the Falls City from the rail out (with jockey and trainer): Envoutante (Hernandez, McPeek); Another Broad (Ricardo Santana Jr., Asmussen); Bonny South (Geroux, Cox); Smooth With a Kick (Tyler Gaffalione, Chad Brown); Our Super Freak (Gabriel Saez, Cherie DeVaux); Cash Out (Edgar Morales, Rusty Arnold II); High Regard (Corey Lanerie, Vicki Oliver); Over Thinking (Rafael Bejarano, Oliver); and Market Rumor (Chris Landeros, Ian Wilkes).

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Envoutante Prompt Favorite In Remington Park Oaks

Trainer Kenny McPeek shipped Envoutante for the Grade 3 Remington Park Oaks at Remington Park in Oklahoma City, Okla., straight from two Grade 1 stakes attempts, the Ashland at Keeneland and the Alabama at Saratoga. She showed her class by easily winning the event on Sunday.

The win was McPeek's second in this race and the victory ended a two-year streak by trainer Steve Asmussen, who won the Oaks with Lady Apple and She's a Julie, the past two years, respectively. McPeek also won this race with Montana Native in 2013. Remington Park's leading rider and top rider the past two years, David Cabrera, was aboard Envoutante for the win.

“I watched some tape of her when she was at Gulfstream Park and she looked uncomfortable there, so my main thing was just to get her comfortable,” Cabrera said. “So I put her on the outside and she felt comfortable. When we went to the lead in the stretch she pricked her ears and I said, 'Uh-oh,' so I got her attention with the left stick and that's when she just drew away.”

Envoutante and Cabrera settled into a mid-pack fifth position in the early going of the 1 1/16-mile race, then moved to the lead at the top of the stretch before cruising home. She chased early fractions of :23.84 seconds for the first quarter-mile, :47.78 for the half-mile, 1:11.89 for three-quarters of a mile and 1:36.91 after a mile. By that time Envoutante was in charge.

Envoutante, a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred filly by Uncle Mo, out of the Bluegrass Cat mare Enchante, ran the exact same winning time to the hundredths of a second that She's a Julie did two years ago in the oaks – 1:43.36.

Envoutante earned $60,000 for owner Walking L Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm and now has three wins from eight starts for $215,748 in her bankroll. Paige Anne (7-1) ran second followed by third-place runner Seattle Slang (6-1) another three-quarters of a length back. The remaining order of finish in the field of eight was Trixie Racer, Jeweled Princess, Curls and Bows, Darlene Strong and Hotasapistol.

Envoutante had been competitive with the tougher company, running fourth at Saratoga in the Alabama Stakes on Aug. 15 to one of the top fillies in the country, Swiss Skydiver, who is expected to go in the Preakness in October. Prior to that in the Ashland at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., she ran third to Speech, another high-brow filly. So it was no surprise to the bettors that the class drop to a Grade 3 stakes would improve the chances of Envoutante greatly. She was sent off at the heave betting choice at 1-5 odds and paid $2.60, $2.10 and $2.10 to win, place and show.

Remington Park racing continues into a new month with a Thursday-Saturday schedule on Oct 1-3. The first race nightly is at 7:07pm-Central.

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