Attfield Sends Untested Red Birkin to Boiling Springs

Trainer Roger Attfield is a known quantity at Monmouth Park, and when the Woodbine-based conditioner ships a horse in for a stakes race at the New Jersey shore, that one rates a close look.

Attfield sends Red Birkin for her first graded stakes attempt in Saturday's $150,000 Boiling Springs Stakes (gr. IIIT), and the 1 1/16-mile turf event for 3-year-old fillies is just the first step on an ambitious plan for the Florida-bred filly by Belong to Me.

"She'll be on the road a lot this summer if all goes well," Attfield said from his Toronto base June 27. "As a non-Canadian-bred grass filly, there aren't many races here for her, so she'll be in the U.S. more than here."

Red Birkin is coming off an allowance win on the Woodbine grass. She broke her maiden on the turf at Gulfstream in February, and in April was beaten just two necks in the Appalachian at Keeneland, her first stakes try.

Now it's a graded stakes attempt for the filly, a homebred from Haras Santa Maria de Araras stable.

"She just breezed this morning here, and she gets on a van at 6 a.m. Thursday for New Jersey. I look for her to run well at Monmouth," Attfield said. "Then, if everything goes right, she'll go next in the Virginia Oaks (at Colonial Downs on July 21)."

Among her rivals Saturday is Virginia Kraft Payson's Rutherienne, dead-heat victor with Bit of Whimsy of Belmont's Sands Point (gr. IIIT) June 2 as the favorite for trainer Christophe Clement.

Also exiting the Sands Point is WinStar Farm's Sharp Susan, who finished fourth after a troubled trip as the second choice. Sharp Susan, a daughter of Touch Gold, won the Herecomesthebride (gr. IIIT) at Gulfstream Park for trainer Bill Mott March 25.

$150,000 Boiling Springs Stakes (gr. IIIT, Race 9, 4:53 p.m.), 3-Year-Old Fillies, 1 1/16 Miles (Turf)
PP. Horse, Weight, Jockey
1. Rutherienne (KY), 118, Joe Bravo
2. Red Birkin (FL), 116, Jose Lezcano
3. More Than a Feelin (KY), 116, Christopher P. DeCarlo
4. Dinner Break (KY), 120, Rajiv Maragh
5. Full of Ideas (KY), 116, Pablo Morales
6. Sharp Susan (KY), 120, Eddie Castro
7. Christies Treasure (ON), 116, Jose A. Velez, Jr.