Champagne Room Back to Work After Surgery

In her first timed workout since she had surgery to remove an ankle chip, champion filly Champagne Room showed an eagerness to do what she does best July 30 at Del Mar—run.

The 3-year-old filly, who ended her juvenile season with an upset win in the 14 Hands Winery Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) to clinch her divisional championship, eagerly ran three furlongs in :35 3/5. The often hard-to-handle filly ran almost a full second faster than any other horse at the distance Sunday.

"That was better than :34," joked trainer Peter Eurton. "She was aggressive in the past, and she's still aggressive, but not as bad. We sent her out very early—at 5:40 (a.m.)—to get a quiet, clean track and she did it on her own. We didn't want to give her any signal to really run."

The daughter of Broken Vow   made her only start of the year in the Feb. 5 Las Virgenes Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park, where she finished third behind Unique Bella and Mopotism. She underwent the ankle surgery in March, but her ownership group wasn't sure if she would return to racing or be sent to the breeding shed.

Following a successful recovery from the surgery, however, the decision was easy to make. She returned to the Eurton barn in June, galloped for 30 days into her first work, and was more than happy to get running Sunday.

"Sure, racing is fun, but it's also fun to just watch her work and have her back," Eurton said of his third grade 1 winner.

Eurton said he doesn't have a return race picked out for Champagne Room, but wants to run her early in the Santa Anita fall meet and is open to several options.

"Grass, dirt, sprinting, routing—anything really," Eurton said. "We'll see if we can get a work into her on the grass (at Del Mar), but it might be too beat up by the time we want to do it."

Stakes options for Champagne Room could include the Zenyatta Stakes (G1) at two turns on dirt, the Rodeo Drive Stakes (G1T) on grass, the Unzip Me Stakes down the hillside turf course, the Swingtime Stakes on grass, or the L.A. Woman Stakes (G3) sprinting on the main track.