Keeneland Breeder Spotlight: Rigney Savoring Sweet Flavor of Success

Richard Rigney says that nothing in life gives him a bigger kick than his horses. To understand just what that means, it might help to know his idea of a vacation. A few years ago, for instance, he went on a shooting range in Russia. Not that startling, perhaps: this was obviously before the war in Ukraine. It's just the caliber of the ordnance that was a little unusual.

“Shooting a bazooka is so fun,” Rigney says. “My wife Tammy was like, 'You know what? I think it's okay that he shoots the bazooka, but I don't think you should really trust him to drive it.' Because I'm a really bad driver!”

He finds a picture on his phone.

“Here's me going into the tank,” he says. “It was from World War II. I blew up a car, like, half a mile away. So that was a thing. We do a lot of traveling, and we love safaris. I guess that was kind of one.”

If that's a day on the range, you can imagine what scuba diving in Honolulu might entail.

“So Tammy set it up with these Navy SEALs who do a lot of stuff for Hawaii Five-O,” Rigney says. “So we're doing all these helicopter stunts and then, at the end of it, we're 45 feet above the ocean in our wetsuits and dive into the ocean for a shark dive.”

Sorry, this is for fun?

“This is for fun!” exclaims Rigney. “It's like when we went to Cambodia. She goes, 'I got two things for you to do out there. They're burning down the jungle. So how do you feel about being an anti-poacher, one day, and then putting out fires the next?' For that we had a zipline from the helicopter into the hotel.”

He chuckles, before making the most superfluous statement of 2023: “We're not like normal tourists.”

And that is true in more ways than one. Just ask the Vietnamese jungle guide whose daughter was upset when he made her laugh, because it showed how bad her teeth were. Rigney paid for a dentist to fix those. Then, when Covid hit and the guide had no trade, he also paid her college fees.

So here's a guy whose appetite for life is commensurate with the size of his heart. Rigney talks with infectious relish, a frank grin never far away. But nothing is more instructive of his nature than how that heart deals with a horserace.

In its literal function, it pumps the blood at such a frantic rate that the pulse monitor on his smart-watch goes nuts. “Whenever we're racing, even if it's just a cheap claimer, my watch will say: 'Did you fall down? Do you need help?'” he says. “Because I'm so excited. So yeah, the racing is my favorite of all. And winning a Grade I was the No. 1 most exciting thing in my life, besides having my kids.”

Played Hard with Phil Bauer | Mike Kane

That was when Played Hard, a $280,000 Keeneland September yearling, won the GI La Troienne S. on Derby Day at Churchill. She couldn't be more aptly named, whether for her parentage–by Into Mischief out of Well Lived (Tiznow)–or her owner in the other, more figurative workings of his heart. For this is indeed a life lived on a most generous scale.

Phil Bauer, his trainer, interjects that Rigney didn't even go down to the saddling ring before the race, because he gave all his paddock passes to guests. His finish-line suite at Churchill was supposed to accommodate 40 people, but Rigney brought in extra tables so that he could seat 60. His guests ranged from his kids' ski instructor, to greenkeepers from a golf course he owns in Oklahoma, to his usher at the Tampa Bay Rays.

“All these people are important to me,” Rigney says. “So I had them all come in to experience this race. What a humongous day for me, right?”

And that's key: Rigney makes it sound as though he's doing himself a favor. There's no mistaking the authentic pleasure this man derives from doing things for other people. Even if, like the friend who watched the Churchill race alongside Rigney, the process has its perils.

“I got so excited that I knocked him over!” Rigney admits. “He thought he was going through the window. If you don't know what a rebel yell is, stand next to me during a race.”

There were further such scenes at Keeneland last weekend, when Buchu (Justify) came from last to win the GII Jessamine S. in emphatic style. This was a new frontier, as the filly is homebred, retained at $275,000 at the September Sale last year. She's the first foal of Flowering Peach (Ire), a staying mare by Galileo (Ire) out of a Giant's Causeway half-sister to Medaglia d'Oro. Unsurprisingly, after starting out on dirt, those genes have enabled Buchu to thrive for the switch to grass and she will now be among the leading home contenders for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Buchu | Coady Photography

The sense that Rigney's program is going up a level, after some early struggles, is no coincidence. Played Hard was one of the first recruits made for Rigney by John Moynihan, renowned for his work with Stonestreet and others; while the private acquisition from Coolmore of Flowering Peach, with her sensational pedigree, qualified her as the cornerstone of a relatively new venture: a broodmare band, already up to 16, based at Denali Stud.

“So it's been kind of like a new thing with John,” Rigney explains. “I'm very excited about it. I really want John to be involved in developing the broodmare part. He's the right guy for it, that's obvious. And Played Hard was from the first full crop of yearlings he picked out for us. She was always one we were excited about–from when we were buying her, to when she went into pre-training, John was like, 'This is the horse that might take you to the promised land.'”

Before that, Rigney and Bauer are candid that they were not shopping quite so effectively. But first let's rewind to how this whole thing started; how Rigney was first drawn to the color and excitement of the sport, as a young man privileged to grow up in buzzing Pasadena, California. (His father was an engineer who worked on the B1 bomber and Apollo spacecraft; while his mother was an accountant.)

Rigney paid his way through college by his wagering at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park–which instinct, incidentally, has never left him. In 2014, having never played a hand in his life, Rigney accompanied a buddy to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. He thought he might as well pay the $10,000 fee and, from a field of 6,683, was famously ranking as high as 86th when losing out, on the fourth day, on a pile of chips that exceeded more than $800,000. Some of his rookie moves had baffled the professionals and Rigney, to disguise his ignorance, had maintained a silence so resolutely enigmatic that many assumed he couldn't even speak English.

But all this freewheeling through life–all these exotic exploits, all his munificence–is actually founded on lab coats and precision.

Rigney owns Clarendon Flavors, a manufacturer of extracts for the beverage industry. “It was just a very fortunate thing,” he protests. “I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but it was the right place, right time. I was working on my master's degree and looking for a job close by. And the nearest one to my school was in this little company, a flavor house. I didn't even know what that meant. But it said they needed a chemist, so I went to interview.”

So began his education in the intricate palette of ingredients from which flavor is designed.

'TDN Rising Star' Twirling Good Time | Coady Photography

“It's like painting,” he says. “It's a really bizarre industry: part chemistry, part art. And the longer you do it, the more of an artist you need to be. I don't really see myself as a chemist really anymore. It's just being a creative person.”

All flavor can apparently be broken down into basic constituents. “Banana, for example, has a hundred different components–but the No. 1 is isoamyl acetate,” Rigney explains. “And that's something you can synthesize from natural ingredients.”

In 1996, after a takeover of the holding group, the opportunity arose for Rigney to finance a buyout of the company he was working for. Three years later he had paid off the loan, and growth since has been perennial. He has clients around the world and across the spectrum: at least half in distilled spirits, but also others making soda pop, apple sauce, ice cream, baby food. Though his company's input usually comprises no more than 0.5-1.0 percent of the finished product, it will go out in 6,000-gallon tankers from two factories in Kentucky, at Louisville and Owensboro.

Things were soon going well enough that Tammy bought her husband a share in a racehorse: a Bernstein filly found by Kenny McPeek for $60,000 at the 2007 September Sale. In the silks of the Livin The Dream partnership, Dream Empress broke her maiden at Saratoga and then won the GI Alcibiades S. by four lengths before running second at the Breeders' Cup.

Not only was Rigney now hooked. He had also hit it off with Bauer, then working for McPeek. In fact, Bauer was the filly's groom at Saratoga before being made McPeek's assistant, even as Rigney started buying a few horses in his own right. The very next season Rigney was back in the Keeneland winner's circle after another juvenile Grade I, and Breeders' Futurity winner Noble's Promise (Cuvee) then went on to run fifth in the GI Kentucky Derby.

Eventually Rigney told Bauer that he would like to take his involvement to another level.

“He originally asked me how many horses it would take for me to go out on my own,” recalls Bauer. “I was unsure of a number. So then he said, 'Well, what about a private job? Just you and me?' And I said, 'I'm ready to go today.'”

“And we did terribly,” declares Rigney with a laugh. “So then I'm getting phone calls from all these different trainers, like, 'Hey, why don't you drop Phil?' And I was like, 'If I'm not with Philip, I'm not going to be in this game.' People didn't really quite understand, at first, but after a couple of years people stopped calling me. Because it's us doing this together. I get to be part of this process, I get to do the day-to-day. We talk all the time. We're like a married couple. We're always together, and we always support each other.”

Xigera | Sarah Andrew

And now, with the stock upgraded by Moynihan, it's all coming together. In 2023, Bauer has saddled 21 winners from just 89 starters–doubling his strike-rate from just two years ago. There are green shoots everywhere. A couple of weeks ago Twirling Good Time (Twirling Candy), a $250,000 Keeneland September yearling, was named a 'TDN Rising Star' for her stylish debut in a sprint maiden at Churchill Downs. Just three days previously Gorilla Trek (Curlin), homebred with Denali and Valli Rose Equine, also opened his account in Louisville; while only a day before that, Buchu herself had broken her maiden on a card that also featured a second stakes success, by six lengths, for the sophomore Xigera (Nyquist). That performance earned Xigera a 97 Beyer, one of the three fastest of the year among 3-year-old fillies, and helped Rigney racing to a share of the owner's title at the September meet.

“I knew Phil was a good trainer from the very beginning,” Rigney says proudly. “It's the way he takes care of horses. But it's also about the way we take care of people. The people at the barn are very important to us. We hire the best that we possibly can, and treat them the best we possibly can. So what's happening now, these are the most fun times.

“Some of these horses we get so close to, it all becomes very personal. Like a family experience. I have to worry about Philip a lot more than he has to worry about me! He gets all upset if a horse runs like Xigera did at the Breeders' Cup last year. I was like, 'It's okay, it's okay.' Most owners don't have to deal with this! But if things don't work out, we never look back.”

No need to do that, anyhow, with so much to look forward to.

“There's been an overall feeling, the last three years, that you could feel it coming,” Bauer agrees. “Just when you get introduced to the new ones coming in, when you breeze the horses, there's just so much more quality. It's such a difference. These horses are extremely talented athletes. A lot of times, you just have to keep out of their way.”

And, given how much their patron loves action, the program's evolution since Moynihan came aboard makes a lot of sense. With so much more quality now, plus a breeding division, there's seldom a dull moment. When they go to the sales these days, for instance, Rigney will be selling as well as buying. Buchu's dam Flowering Peach–aptly enough, Buchu is the flavoring agent for peach–already looks an extremely commercial proposition. She had an Uncle Mo filly this spring and is now in foal to Golden Pal.

Best of all, these episodic excitements all aggregate to something bigger. “The thing is that we're looking at it really long term,” Rigney emphasizes. “Even in our bad years, we've done better each year, and that was what I wanted. You do get used to being knocked down in this game, and that doesn't really bother me. It's a tough sport. There's a lot of people here who want to win just as badly as we do. And so I'm okay with that. But when we do win a big race, then it's just huge. We're so excited.”

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Played Hard Carries the Rigney Motto to Ogden Phipps

One short elevator ride from the top of the Churchill Downs grandstand down to the ground floor was all the time it took for Phil Bauer to officially become a Grade I-winning trainer.

On Kentucky Oaks Friday, Bauer was watching from upstairs as his trainee Played Hard (Into Mischief) took the lead going into the stretch of the GI La Troienne S. and, with Johnny Velazquez aboard, fought off last year's Oaks victress Secret Oath (Arrogate) to win by a neck. When Bauer and an elated crew of Rigney Racing supporters raced to the elevator to get their picture taken, they unknowingly avoided the hair-raising anxiety of sitting through an objection raised by Secret Oath's rider Tyler Gaffalione. By the time the group made it to the winner's circle, it had been determined that there would be no change. Richard and Tammy Rigney's Rigney Racing and their trainer Phil Bauer had just earned their first Grade I win.

“It was such a special day, I guess a dream come true,” reflected Bauer, who grew up in Louisville. “You obviously strive to reach that level and to finally do it was just, I don't want to say a relief because relief is almost expecting something. You dream about it and then once it's real, it's something you can reflect on and be proud of. It all boils down to the team and how everybody came together. You think back to when we first bought the  filly and then to get there, it's so satisfying and you're very happy for the Rigneys for what they've put into the game. It's long overdue and hopefully many more to come.”

Much of Played Hard's success, and the rise of Rigney Racing in the past few years, Bauer credits to a change in game plan.

Bauer was working as an assistant for Kenny McPeek when Richard Rigney–owner of the Louisville-based beverage company Clarendon Flavor Engineering–offered him the opportunity to become the private trainer for Rigney Racing. The operation launched in 2013 and, despite winning their very first race, saw very little success in their early years together. After earning only 27 wins from 250 starts in their first five years, they decided to enlist the help of bloodstock agent John Moynihan.

Played Hard, a $280,000 Keeneland September purchase, was part of one of the first Rigney Racing crops put together with Moynihan's assistance.

“John Moynihan was a big piece of the puzzle and made a world of difference in the last five years with bringing in quality racehorses,” explained Bauer. “The proof is in the pudding. You can see in the last five years for us, we've really started to excel and it boils down to the horse. [Richard and I] go to the sales, look at the short list and pick the ones that we like the most, but John is driving the boat and it has helped a lot.”

Bauer had high hopes for Played Hard when they took her home after the Keeneland sale and his faith in the daughter of Into Mischief grew after each trip to Ocala to visit the youngster. The filly didn't make the races at two and was unsuccessful in her first three starts at six furlongs, but once she stretched out, she stepped up to a new level. She ran second in the GIII Comely S. as a sophomore and at four, she bookended a third-place finish in the GI Spinster S. with two Grade III wins at Churchill Downs. Her victory in the La Troienne, where she went off at close to 9-1, was her first start since winning the GIII Falls City S. last November.

“I was a little nervous that she wasn't tight enough, but I think she has matured into a racehorse that knows the game now,” Bauer explained. “Just in daily training, she hates horses in front of her and she'll want to get to them. With her overall demeanor as an athlete, she's a competitor. It's something that some horses lack, but she's got plenty of it.”

Bauer is hoping that the 5-year-old's winning ways will continue on into this weekend, when she'll have another matchup with Secret Oath in the GI Ogden Phipps S. Played Hard will once again team up with John Velazquez to face a six-horse field that also includes last year's Ogden Phipps winner Clairiere (Curlin), plus GISW Search Results (Flatter).

“We originally thought, 'Well, let's just come back in the Fleur de Lis at the end of the Churchill meet,'” said Bauer. “We kept an eye on the Ogden Phipps and while it's not coming up light, it's just coming up with a reduced field. The fact that she's got the grade one, we felt like in the big picture if we can win or be extremely competitive in it, it's only going to help her credentials as the year comes to an end and hopefully keep her name in the conversation for an Eclipse Award or hopefully the Breeders' Cup.”

The Rigney Racing operation comes into Belmont weekend riding a hot streak at Churchill Downs.

GISP Xigera returns a winner in her 3-year-old debut on June 2 at Churchill Downs | Coady

Xigera (Nyquist) got the ball rolling last Friday when she took an allowance contest going a mile on the turf in her 3-year-old debut. A maiden winner last summer in Saratoga, the filly was third in the GI Darley Alcibiades but then finished last in a field of 14 when she took her connections to their first Breeders' Cup for the Juvenile Fillies Turf.

“We felt so confident going into the Breeders' Cup and to run as bad as she did was just a hard pill to swallow,” Bauer admitted. “She never grabbed the bit that day and there was no major excuse that we could point at, so we decided to give her the winter and let her develop. She came back much more mature physically and mentally. We were anxious to get a start in her and hoping she would return to form so when she did, it was just like a sigh of relief. We're hopeful that she can continue to climb the ladder and hopefully produce some stakes wins for us this year.”

Bauer said that everything, quite literally, is on the table for the filly's next start. While Xigera has always shown an affinity for turf, she trains well on the main track in the morning and performed well in the Alcibiades on dirt last fall.

Xigera's efforts were followed up with a win on Sunday from Warrior Johny (Cairo Prince). The 4-year-old gelding came in off a seven-month layoff to take an allowance optional claimer by four lengths.

Also last weekend, Bauer had two second-place finishes with Anna's Arabesque (Munnings), who was third last month in an overnight stake at Churchill Downs, and Little Prankster (Practical Joke), a $425,000 yearling purchase who has now finished second in her first two career starts.

“I think she's one to definitely keep an eye on,” reported Bauer. “She actually works in company with a lot of the horses we've already covered, so you know her ability is there.”

Phil Bauer and Richard Rigney | Keeneland

With 27 horses currently stabled at Churchill Downs and more trainees returning off layoffs or joining the barn as 2-year-olds this summer,  Bauer said they have high hopes for Rigney Racing this year. They'll have to work hard to meet last year's achievements, when they were the leading owner at the Churchill Downs spring meet, took home six of their 13 starts at Saratoga and finished the year with a record 21 wins.

“It's something that we felt was coming,” Bauer said as he reflected on their recent achievements. “You don't always anticipate extreme success in this game, but you have a general idea that you can at least be competitive in certain areas based on what horses you have in the barn and how they're training. That has been the case the last couple of years. The whole program has finally gotten legs and taken off. It's what we were striving for and for it to be here, it's been a lot of fun.”

Bauer's connection with the Rigneys runs much deeper than a trainer-owner relationship.

“[Richard] is one of my best friends,” he shared. “We golf together all the time. I'm very fortunate and blessed that [the Rigneys] stuck with me and continued to build around what we started out together. That means a lot to me. They're great people and they care about everybody and want to have a family atmosphere here at the barn. It's a pleasure to train for them and it's even sweeter when we're able to be victorious.”

Played Hard's name originated from what has come to be a meaningful adage for the Rigneys.

“The name came from their motto of life of if you lived well, you played hard,” Bauer explained. “And they enjoy life. I think when their time is gone, people will be able to look back and say, 'Well they did about all you can do.' At the same time, they make everyone's lives around them better.”

While there was a host of over 60 of the Rigneys' closest friends and family present at their home track in Louisville for the La Troienne victory, come this weekend it will be a much different experience as Bauer and Richard Rigney take on Belmont together for Played Hard's bid in the Ogden Phipps.

“I don't know if I'll ever be able to top the feeling of our first grade one being at home with the cast that Richard had present at the races, but obviously winning a grade one at Belmont on Belmont Day would be surreal as well,” Baur said. “Richard and I are the only ones going up Saturday, that was just the way it kind of worked out, so maybe it would be even sweeter if we can celebrate together and focus how we started and where we've gotten to be.”

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Into Mischief Filly Not Playing in La Troienne

Making her first start since winning last fall's GIII Falls City S. at 45 cents on the dollar, Rigney Racing's Played Hard (Into Mischief) rewarded those that remained loyal to her from a pari-mutuel perspective with a near 9-1 upset in Friday's GI La Troienne S. at Churchill Downs. For the second time in as many races, Briland Farm's Secret Oath (Arrogate)–who won the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks on this program 12 months ago–took a dirty beat in Grade I company, having been pipped on the post in the Apple Blossom H. last time, while Search Results (Flatter), beaten a neck by Malathaat (Curlin) in the 2021 Oaks, was a brave third.

“I went to bed many nights dreaming of this moment,” said trainer and Louisville native Phil Bauer, who was unsaddling his first top-level winner. “Horse racing can be like climbing Mount Everest. Today, I feel like we've made it to the top. As a Louisville guy, this means everything to me. It's so hard to put into words what Tammi and Richard Rigney mean to me. They've supported me through the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows.”

Ridden for some speed by John Velazquez, Played Hard argued the early issue inside of Search Results and Society (Gun Runner), but when it was clear that Florent Geroux was intent on taking the latter to the top, Velazquez took a tug on Played Hard and pulled her to the outside to hound the front-runner from second. Society led through a half in a solid :47.28 and took the field into the second turn, but Played Hard was breathing down her neck and came calling for the lead with just under 2 1/2 furlongs to go. A few lengths behind, Secret Oath was making ominous progress after covering ground, but had to be asked by Tyler Gaffalione.

In front as they hit the top of the lane, Played Hard was urged along to maintain her advantage, but Secret Oath, six or seven wide off the final corner, looked to have the momentum down the center of the track while Search Results refused to lay down at the rail. Played Hard drifted out under a left-handed crop and she and Secret Oath brushed, but she boxed on gamely and was home narrowly best. A claim of foul against the winner was ultimately disallowed and the result stood as is.

“She's very brave. All the credit goes to Mr. Phil Bauer and his team,” said Velazquez, winning the La Troienne for the third time. “She's been working really good, and I didn't know if she had enough to beat Secret Oath today. But she put in a couple of good works here. I knew she was going to run well. The whole team did such a great job, to get her ready after a long layoff, and to run with this horse. I've got to give it to Phil, great job.”

Tyler Gaffalione said the incident in the stretch likely cost Secret Oath the race.

“Honestly, it felt a lot worse than it looked,” he said. “My filly must have been getting tired at that point, and we came together. I had pretty good position going into the first turn, then we ran into traffic, and a lot of shuffling, so I didn't want to get myself in a bad spot, so I got her out of there. She's got such a tremendous kick, that I wanted to rely on that.”

Off the board just once in eight previous runs beneath the Twin Spires, Played Hard romped home by 5 3/4 lengths in the GIII Locust Grove S. during Churchill's September meet last fall, then was third, but soundly defeated, in the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. at Keeneland ahead of her Falls City performance.

Pedigree Notes:

The 16th Grade I winner for her spectacular sire, Played Hard–a $280,000 Keeneland September acquisition–is out of daughter of SW Well Dressed, the dam of G1 Dubai World Cup hero Well Armed (Tiznow); GSW Witty (Distorted Humor), the dam of Grade III winner Bombard (War Front) and MGSP Amuse (Medaglia d'Oro); GISP Helsinki (Distorted Humor); and of the dam of GISW and current Darley Japan stallion American Patriot (War Front). Well Lived is the dam of the 3-year-old colt Highest Regards (Candy Ride {Arg}) and delivered a colt by Constitution Apr. 3. Played Hard is bred on a similar cross to champion Wonder Wheel as well as Grade III winner Comical. Rocket Can, who starts in Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby, has asecond dam by Tiznow.

Friday, Churchill Downs
LA TROIENNE S. PRESENTED BY TWINSPIRES-GI, $750,000, Churchill Downs, 5-5, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16m, 1:42.48, ft.
1–PLAYED HARD, 123, m, 5, by Into Mischief
           1st Dam: Well Lived, by Tiznow
           2nd Dam: Well Dressed, by Notebook
           3rd Dam: Trithenia, by Gold Meridian
1ST GRADE I WIN. ($280,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Rigney Racing, LLC; B-Susan Casner (KY); T-Philip A. Bauer; J-John R. Velazquez. $441,750. Lifetime Record: 15-6-5-2, $1,420,140. Werk Nick Rating: A+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree or free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Secret Oath, 123, f, 4, by Arrogate
           1st Dam: Absinthe Minded (MSW & MGISP, $607,747), by Quiet American
           2nd Dam: Rockford Peach, by Great Above
           3rd Dam: Strawberry Skyline, by Hatchet Man
O-Briland Farm; B-Briland Farm, Robert & Stacy Mitchell (KY); T-D. Wayne Lukas. $142,500.
3–Search Results, 123, m, 5, by Flatter
           1st Dam: Co Cola (GSP), by Candy Ride (Arg)
           2nd Dam: Yong Musician, by Yonaguska
           3rd Dam: Alljazz, by Stop the Music
($310,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.; B-Machmer Hall (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $71,250.
Margins: NK, HF, 1HF. Odds: 8.93, 1.68, 4.02.
Also Ran: A Mo Reay, Desert Dawn, Pauline's Pearl, Soul of an Angel, Sixtythreecaliber, Society, Classy Edition.
Click for the Equibase.com chart or the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.

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Thanksgiving Brings Trio of Graded Stakes To The Table

Horse racing fans will tuck in to a traditional helping of graded stakes on Thursday at both Churchill Downs and the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. Coast-to-coast Grade III gatherings include a dirt and turf race in the GIII Falls City S. and the GIII Cardinal S. before swinging out west to the Jimmy Durante Turf Course for the GIII Red Carpet S.

Into Mischief's Played Hard the Favorite in Falls City

With only six drawn for the Falls City under the Twin Spires, there is no question that trainer Phil Bauer has the upper hand with deserving favorite Played Hard (Into Mischief). Once again, the daughter of the Spendthrift super sire commands respect after winning the GIII Locust Grove S. on track Sept. 17, and the 4-year-old filly followed that with a third-place effort against the formidable 'TDN Rising Star' Malathaat (Curlin) and consistent Army Wife (Declaration of War) in the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. at Keeneland Oct. 9. If she rates well and gets a fast main track, look for her to overwhelm this bunch. Her bloodline sports a strong sire, but her dam Well Lived (Tiznow) not only has a Horse of the Year in her background, but her full-brother Well Armed was a multiple Grade I winner.

Sodbusters Take to the Matt Winn

The Matt Winn Turf Course is back in action in November after a controversial summer and fall. Is the new grass ready? The question will dog its path. A staple this time of year is the GIII Cardinal S. Not to be missed, this field of 10 includes older females that will be contesting the nine furlongs. The Al Stall, Jr. trainee Dalika (Ger) (Pastorius {Ger}) is the only millionaire earner in the bunch, and with over 30 starts to her credit, she comes to Churchill from Keeneland after running sixth on Nov. 5. in the one-mile Fall Harvest S., presented by Mint Gaming Hall. Stretching out back out to the nine-furlong distance seems to be in her favor. The last time she took to this course, she won the Aug. 13 GI Beverly D S., rallying past Princess Grace (Karakontie {Jpn}) just before the wire.

Others that will oppose her include the morning-line favorite at 9-5, the Godolphin homebred Adventuring (Pioneerof the Nile). Well-bred for the turf being out of champion Questing (GB) (Hard Spun), the 4-year-old filly was most recently seen in the GI E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine Oct. 8. where she lost the lead in the stretch and was ultimately moved up a place after the DQ of Moira (Ghostzapper). Controlling the fractions up front will be a key to her success. A longer shot on the board that is worth a look is Eddie Kenneally's 5-year-old mare Curly Ruth (Curlin). Her tactical ability could be an asset in a race like this, especially if the pace falls apart. Out of Rutherienne (Pulpit), she will be looking to improve on a poor showing against the talented Bleecker Street (Quality Road) in the GIII Modesty S. on the May 6 Kentucky Oaks undercard.

Green Rolled Out for the Red Carpet

An 11-furlong turf test will challenge this collection of fillies and one mare. The spinster in this lot is Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners's Sister Otoole (Amira's Prince {Ire}), a 5-year-old out of O' Toole. Trained by Graham Motion, her experience over the course of 18 starts, including running third last time out to Temple City Terror (Temple City) in the GIII Rood and Riddle Dowager S., gives her a distinct advantage over this field as the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

Opposing her is a 4-year-old filly by American Pharoah that has contested races at six different tracks over the past year. Scarabea was under the care of Jack Sisterson, but now the Calumet homebred makes the move to Eoin Harty's barn. Routing on the turf against some solid competition, she will need to take a step forward after running fifth in the GI Rodeo Drive S. at Santa Anita Oct. 8.

One other entry to scrutinize is Mark Glatt's Bellstreet Bridie (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), a 3-year-old filly who makes her stateside debut here. She has nine starts under her belt this year for trainer Michael Bell, but the major question she has to answer is class. Making her stakes debut, she will have to raise her game significantly for her new outfit.

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