Contested to head the Acorn Stake, while On Fire Baby is the second choice
Contested is owned by Natalie Jill Baffert, wife of the veteran trainer Bob Baffert, and the three-year-old filly will be making the fifth start of her career in the Grade 1, $300,000 Acorn Stakes on the Memorial Day weekend at Belmont Park.
Bred in Kentucky by Cherry Valley Farm, Contested will be stretched out in distance for the first time in her career for the Acorn Stakes. Exiting a victory in the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes at seven furlongs, Contested will be stretched out to 1 mile for the Acorn on 28 May, 2012.
On the main track of the Big Sandy, the race has reeled 3-year-old fillies, and Contested will be the one head the field with the most favourable odds of 7 to 5, carrying 121 pounds, equally distributed among the rest of the field.
“She handled seven-eighths, so she should be able to handle a mile,” said Jim Barnes, assistant to the filly’s Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert. “She’s doing well. She’s came in on Thursday [May 17], galloped three or four days and then we breezed her five days out from the race. She had a nice work over the racetrack [five furlongs in 1:00.05 on Wednesday] and we’re ready to run. We’ve dealt with a lot of rain, but with her schedule we were able to miss most of it. On her work day the track was a little demanding, wet, but we got our work in.”
The daughter of Ghostzapper, out of mare Gold Vault by Arch, Contested broke her maiden at second asking and from then on has strung together a hat-trick of victories, with the most evident and recent one, the Grade 3 Eight Belles Stakes.
In the Eight Belles Stakes, Contested made up so much lost ground, but in the end got there, nipping a determined, Good Deed, to win the seven furlong race at Churchill Downs on 4 May, 2012, under her regular jockey Martin Garcia, as Always Here too finished third.
The Kentucky Oaks fifth place finisher, On Fire Baby is sent at 5 to 2, and might have a say in the race, and it seems the filly will return to the winning track in the Acorn Stakes.
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