Trainer Steve Margolis was looking for just a maintenance work Saturday morning at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., when he sent Robert and Lawana Low's She'sonthewarpath out for a half-mile work eight days before the 5-year-old mare runs in the $100,000 Kentucky Downs TVG Preview Ladies Mile.
“I just told Melvin, 'She's fit, just get her a maintenance work,'” Margolis said of exercise rider Melvin Quevedo. “She doesn't need a lot, just a half-mile. Let her gallop out on her own and be comfortable.' And that's what he did.”
Apparently quite comfortably, She'sonthewarpath finished up her work assignment in :48 flat, the fifth fastest of 45 timed workouts at the distance. (The “bullet” clocking was the :47.40 uncorked by the Brendan Walsh-trained Amazina, who also is nominated for the Ladies Mile.)
“If you ask her to go, she'll go,” Margolis said. “She's a very good work horse. She'll give you everything if you ask her.”
She'sonthewarpath will try to improve on last year's second-place finish over very soft turf. That 2020 winner, English Affair, is set to make her first start since April in the Ladies Mile.
As with last year, She'sonthewarpath comes into the Ladies Mile off of a stakes victory. Last year, it was at Indiana Grand, while this year she edged even-money favorite Dominga to take the Ellis Park Turf. Regular rider Adam Beschizza will be aboard.
“She's training very well, knock wood,” Margolis said. “Eating good. Coat looks good. She's able to graze here. She likes the atmosphere. We don't have to ship. She's a class horse. You can put her on a van and send her anywhere, and she'll always do the right thing. But it's good. We're stabled here, and she has a solid win over the track. We're looking forward to the race next Sunday.”
While she still ran well over last year's soft turf, Margolis said She'sonthewarpath prefers her grass on the good to firm side. With the expectation for sunshine all week, she should get that course condition.
“She's always going to try,” Margolis said. “This course can handle a little water anyway. It looks like it's in real good shape.”
Margolis said he and the owners have wanted to try the mare at Kentucky Downs and hope the opportunity presents itself this year in the $750,000 Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf on Sept. 11.
“I think it would be a good track to take a shot for the money,” Margolis said. “If the filly comes out of this next one good, roll the dice (for a) big purse, Grade 3. I look forward to maybe giving it a shot.”
She'sonthewarpath sports a 7-1-2 record in 15 turf starts, with the vast majority of her $432,820 earnings coming on grass. She owns five stakes victories and is graded-stakes placed.
“She's always been a pro,” Margolis said. “We tried her on the dirt, and she actually didn't run too bad. Just a class act. Always shows up. She's got a little edge to her, like some of those fillies get. But in the paddock, just to train, she knows her business. She goes out there and is a real pro. A little tough to gallop, but we've got her figured out over the last couple of years. She'll try a rider if they don't hold on. But she's smart and has a great attitude and always tries for us.”
Margolis knows how hard it is to come up with stakes horses.
In his third full year of training in 2003, he earned his first graded-stakes victory with the 3-year-old Cajun Beat, who two races later captured the Breeders' Cup Sprint to be voted Eclipse Award champion sprinter. He had a steady trickle of graded stakes horses during the next decade. But the racing game became severely tilted toward the mega-stables in the years since. Against that backdrop, She'sonthewarpath truly has been a gift that's kept on giving for three seasons now.
“Over the last couple of years, we only had 15-20 head,” Margolis said. “Smaller pool of horses, you're not going to have as much of a chance to get those kinds. So it's been great to have her. I'm just so grateful that Robert and Lawana decided to sent her to me and to keep her going” at age 5.
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