Familiar Course Plotted for Elate

[Wandering Eyes]

After punching her ticket to the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff with an impressive performance in Saturday evening’s ‘Win and You’re In’ GII Fleur de Lis H. beneath the lights at Churchill Downs, a title defense in the GII Delaware H. July 13 could be next for ‘TDN Rising Star’ Elate (Medaglia d’Oro).

“Ideally, we will run in the Delaware H. and then the [GI] Personal Ensign [at Saratoga Aug. 24] if she is doing well and takes us there,” Claiborne President Walker Hancock said. “Obviously, she has a free entry to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, so that will be the year-end goal as of now.”

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, the Claiborne Farm and Adele B. Dilschneider homebred faced the starter only twice in 2018, impressively capturing the 1 1/4-mile Delaware centerpiece in her seasonal debut followed by a painful second to champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road) with a career-best 105 Beyer Speed Figure in a roughly run renewal of the Personal Ensign. She was forced to sit out last year’s Distaff after popping a splint.

Elate was somewhat disappointing in a pair of prior efforts to kick off her 5-year-old campaign going 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn, finishing second in the GII Azeri S. Mar. 16 and third in the GI Apple Blossom H. Apr. 14. The winner of both of those races Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) added a jaw-dropping score in the GI Ogden Phipps on the GI Belmont S. undercard.

“We’re very glad to see her back in top form,” Hancock said. “Clearly, 1 1/16 miles is too short for her, which explains her flat performances in Arkansas this spring. If the race was that far the other night, she would’ve been third again so we will keep her at nine furlongs or longer the rest of the year.”

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