Perfect Alibi Faces Rising Gamine, Casual in Acorn

Tracy Farmer's Perfect Alibi, unraced since finishing fourth behind champion British Idiom in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) in November at Santa Anita Park, is the lone graded stakes winner in the $300,000 Longines Acorn Stakes (G1) June 20. The one-turn mile event, traditionally a key race on the championship trail, goes as race 8  with a 4:15 p.m. ET post time at Belmont Park.

A two-time graded winner last summer at Saratoga Race Course, Perfect Alibi has been consistent in the mornings gearing up for her 2020 debut. She'll face a pair of potential stars in Michael Lund Petersen's Gamine, a $1.8 million Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale purchase last year, and Hill 'n' Dale Equine Holdings and Stretch Run Ventures' Casual, who is unbeaten in two sprint events this spring.

As for Perfect Alibi's layoff, "She's been ready to run for about three months," trainer Mark Casse said. "She's always been very, very professional. If anything, she's a little better work horse than she was. This year, and recently, she's been a little more aggressive in her works."

Bred in Kentucky by Pin Oak Stud, Perfect Alibi is by Sky Mesa  out of the stakes-winning Maria's Mon's mare No Use Denying. She was one of the more precocious members of her class last season, breaking her maiden at first asking by 9 1/2 lengths at Churchill Downs in May and later adding the 6 1/2-furlong Adirondack Stakes (G2) and seven-furlong Spinaway Stakes (G1) at the Spa. She was second to British Idiom in the Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at Keeneland before the Breeders' Cup.

She will break from post 7, the far outside, under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.

"I said the other day that training horses is like putting a puzzle together. And this year it's putting a puzzle together with no pictures and no edges. It's even more difficult with everything going on," Casse said. "I just feel fortunate that we're running. We're lucky."

They'll need luck against Gamine. A bay filly by Into Mischief —Peggy Jane, by Kafwain, she crushed maidens at Santa Anita when sprinting March 7, then had to dig deep to win an allowance optional claiming event going 1 1/16 miles at Oaklawn Park May 2, Arkansas Derby Day.

John Velazquez will be the third rider she's had and will be aboard when she starts from post 1.

"With post 1, we obviously now have to use her from the get-go, where we hoped she'd be outside. In her works, we have been keeping her outside and teaching her to wait," Petersen said.

"Hopefully, she'll live up to the expectations we have for her. It's not often that (trainer) Bob Baffert calls one of his horses a superstar. He definitely hasn't called any of my other horses that, and since he doesn't need to, he's put my expectations up."

Like all others, Petersen will have to watch the race from home in Maryland.

"We all have to live with this 'corona' stuff. We've been living at home for the last three or four months—like everybody else, I hope—trying to isolate and keep a distance from people," he said. "I know I don't want the virus. I understand their precautions. Is it weird owners can't come? Maybe I'm a little disappointed. We all have been struggling, and we're all trying to do our best."

Also looking to do her best is the Steve Asmussen-trained Casual, a daughter of Asmussen-trained Curlin  out of two-time grade 1 winner (and Asmussen-trained) Lady Tak. Lady Tak was beaten a head in the 2003 Acorn by Bird Town.

"I try to have horses with people I have full confidence in: Steve, Bob Baffert, Josie Carroll at Woodbine," Hill 'n' Dale president John Sikura said. "My job is to try to provide the best horse I can and pay the bills and stay out of their way and let them be intuitive and always put the horse first."

Casual debuted April 11 at Oaklawn, earning a 104 Equibase Speed Figure in a six-furlong maiden race. That is the highest figure earned by any runner in the race. She followed that with a score going seven furlongs at Churchill Downs, earning a 100.

"It looks like she has talent, and it is a huge challenge to try a grade 1 in just her third start, but we'll see if she's up to it," Sikura said. "I know she's a good filly, and you have to be a really good horse to win a New York grade 1 race with a filly who has only run twice. I'm looking forward to the weekend."

The Acorn is by no means a three-horse race. Others with the credentials include Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson's Lucrezia, second to division leader Swiss Skydiver in the March 28 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2); E.V. Racing Stable's Water White, from the first crop of Conveyance  and the winner of the March 7 Busher Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack; and Martin Schwartz, R. A. Hill Stable, and Corms Racing Stable's Glass Ceiling, a bay filly by Constitution  who has won her two 2020 outings by open lengths at seven furlongs.

Entries: Longines Acorn S. (G1)

Belmont Park, Saturday, June 20, 2020, Race 8

• Grade I
• 1m
• Dirt
• $300,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 4:15 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Gamine (KY)	John R. Velazquez	118	Bob Baffert	1/1
2	2Lucrezia (KY)	Julien R. Leparoux	118	Arnaud Delacour	9/2
3	3Water White (KY)	Jorge A. Vargas, Jr.	118	Rudy R. Rodriguez	10/1
4	4Casual (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	118	Steven M. Asmussen	3/1
5	5Glass Ceiling (KY)	Joel Rosario	118	Danny Gargan	20/1
6	6Pleasant Orb (KY)	Manuel Franco	118	Barclay Tagg	20/1
7	7Perfect Alibi (KY)	Irad Ortiz, Jr.	120	Mark E. Casse	5/1