She Can't Sing on Key in Frontrunning Chilukki Victory
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Photo: Coady Photography
She Can't Sing wins the Chilukki Stakes at Churchill Downs
Lothenbach Stables' She Can't Sing has long been a versatile performer, winning on turf, synthetic, and turf surfaces. Now she's shown yet more adaptability, this time with her running style.
Typically a mare that stalks the pace from two or more lengths off the leader, she showed she could do something else Nov. 19 at Churchill Downs in the $298,500 Chilukki Stakes (G3), racing in tandem for the early lead before asserting her superiority in the stretch. The homebred 5-year-old daughter of Bernardini drew clear under Brian Hernandez Jr. for a 2 3/4-length victory over Ice Orchid .
"Had to go to Plan B," Hernandez told winning trainer Chris Block as he brought his mount back in front of the grandstand in preparation for entering the winner's circle.
It was a frontrunning plan that worked in the mile race, in part due to the makeup of six-horse lineup, which was void of pace, particularly after the scratch of graded-winning sprinter Center Aisle .
Still, the fractions of the race weren't slow—22.82, 45.50, and 1:10.12—the first two of those coming over a straightaway down Churchill's long backstretch chute.
"Brian did a great—just sat there, and she inherited the lead," Block said. "I knew around the far turn—when she's in that much hand, got so much horse—that it would be tough for her to get run down."
Indeed, no one could threaten her, with the winner timed covering a mile in 1:35.38. Ice Orchid rallied from fourth to finish in front of show finisher Liberty M D .
Favored Coach ran a dull fourth after trailing the field early, and Empire House and second favorite Mariah's Princess rounded out the two final positions. Beaten 30 lengths, Mariah's Princess returned to be unsaddled with blood visible from her nostrils. She was given a precautionary ride back to the backstretch in the horse ambulance.
Amid a reduction in race-day medication across much of the country, stakes races in Kentucky are conducted without the diuretic Lasix, which is used to control respiratory bleeding and allowed for most types of races for older horses.
Hernandez said She Can't Sing was full of energy after the third quarter of the race, timed in :24.62, when she caught a breather when fellow frontrunner Empire House began to retreat.
"My filly just traveled well the whole way, and she got to the quarter pole on her own terms," Hernandez said. "And when she switched leads, she sprinted home."
The connections of She Can't Sing enjoy a trophy presentation after the Chilukki
She paid $9.04 to win to her mutuel backers. She earned $183,450 for capturing the race, which went to post without an existing graded stakes winner. She advanced her record to 8-6-5 in 33 starts and career earnings to $816,588 for Bob Lothenbach's Lothanbach Stables. She now has four 2022 stakes victories.
Bred in Kentucky, She Can't Sing is out of the three-time winning Distorted Humor mare Distormed Music, a producer of five foals, two of which have started. She Can't Sing is the dam's lone winner. Among her produce are two foals not yet of racing age, a yearling full brother to She Can't Sing, and a Tapit colt born this year.
"She'll go to Fair Grounds for the winter," Block said. "We'll kind of probably freshen up a little bit and get ready for a campaign for next year."