Stonestreet Stables' Twilight Gleaming returned to the races with authority Saturday by winning the Giant's Causeway (L) by 1½ lengths while posting a stakes-record time.
“She ran great, and she is good this morning,” trainer Wesley Ward said of Twilight Gleaming, who covered the 5 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares in 1:01.74.
The victory put Twilight Gleaming, a 4-year-old Irish-bred National Defense filly, on a path to a possible return to Royal Ascot in England, where she ran second in the 2021 Queen Mary (G2).
Twilight Gleaming was making her first start since finishing fourth behind Caravel in the Franklin (G3), since upgraded to Grade 2 status, at Keeneland in October. Caravel came back three weeks later to beat the boys in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1).
Ward also saddled Gayla Rankin's Happy Soul in the Giant's Causeway, and she finished fourth.
“I think I am going to keep her on the grass,” said Ward, who ruled out coming back in the $300,000 Unbridled Sidney (L) at Churchill Downs on May 5. “That race comes back awful quick for me.”
Brownwood Farm's Querobin Dourada rallied to get second in the Giant's Causeway as the longest price on the board at 87-1.
“She had been training very well, and she ran good,” trainer Paulo Lobo said of Querobin Dourada, adding that a next start is to be determined.
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