Mother Mother Looks to Make the Grade in Eight Belles

[Wandering Eyes]

Mother Mother (Pioneerof the Nile), tabbed a ‘TDN Rising Star’ after her debut win at Del Mar last July, will look for that elusive first graded score in Friday’s GII Eight Belles S. at Churchill Downs. Since her impressive debut win, she has hit the board in four graded events, including a runner-up effort behind GI Kentucky Oaks favorite Bellafina (Quality Road) in last year’s GI Del Mar Debutante and a narrowly beaten third-place finish in the GI Starlet S. Most recently, the dark bay filly was beaten a head by Fancy Dress Party (Munnings) when second in the Apr. 7 GIII Beaumont S. at Keeneland. She is a winner of her lone Churchill outing, having scored a front-running victory in the Rags to Riches S. last October.

Queen of Beas (Flatter), scratched out of the sloppy Beaumont, will make her stakes debut in the Eight Belles. The filly graduated going the Eight Belles’s seven furlongs at Gulfstream Jan. 6 and added a one-mile optional claimer last time out in Hallandale Jan. 31.

Del Mar May (Jimmy Creed) enters the Eight Belles off a maiden win at Keeneland, but she already has graded stakes experience. The filly ran second to Bellafina in last year’s GII Sorrento S. and went to the sidelines after finishing a well-beaten fifth behind that foe in the Sept. 29 GI Chandelier S. She scored by an easy four lengths going seven furlongs at Keeneland Apr. 5 in her return.

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