Three Fillies and a Mare Work Toward Breeders' Cup

Beautiful Pleasure - Defending Breeders' Cup Distaff heroine Beautiful Pleasure worked five furlongs over a fast main track in 1:01 Friday morning at Churchill Downs. Assistant trainer Donna Ward was up for the move.

"It was just what we wanted," trainer John Ward said. "We didn't want anything fast. We just wanted her to get over the racetrack, and that is what she did."

John Ward timed Beautiful Pleasure in 1:43 for a mile going from the seven-eighths pole to the seven-eighths pole. "We let her lope around, and to get five-eighths in 1:01 for her is pretty hard to do. She has big gallops and we didn't want to take the ability to have those big gallops away by working fast," Ward said.

Beautiful Pleasure has run at Churchill Downs only once in her 20-race career, a third-place finish in the 1998 Churchill Downs Distaff at a mile.

"That was the second time Jorge (Chavez) rode her, and we tried to rate her that day," Ward said.

Chavez has been aboard Beautiful Pleasure for her past 15 starts, a span that includes eight victories and four seconds.

Jostle - Fox Hill Farms' Breeders' Cup Distaff hopeful Jostle worked five furlongs after the renovation break in 1:00 2/5 under jockey Mike Smith.

"I thought she worked really good," Smith said. "I have been over this track a lot, and can usually tell if they can handle it or not. It is clay based and gets a little cuppy at times, and some horses take to it and some don't. She skipped right over it today."

"I was tickled to death with it," trainer John Servis said of the work. "She is coming off a real deep racetrack at Philadelphia Park, so she has plenty of bottom under her. Basically, I just wanted her to have a nice breeze and stretch out a little bit. Time-wise, it could not have been better. It was just what I was looking for."

Servis said he may gallop Jostle up to the Distaff or possibly schedule a blowout late next week.

She's A Devil Due - With owners Brian Griggs and Mike Goetz looking on with trainer Ken McPeek from the backstretch clocker's stand, Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies candidate She's a Devil Due worked five furlongs in 1:03 with jockey Mark Guidry up. McPeek timed the Alcibiades winner going the first quarter in 27, the three-eighths in 39 3/5, the half in 53 and five furlongs in 1:04.

"I was hoping for a minute and change or 1:01, but she finished good," McPeek said. "Her last eighth was 11 and change. She broke off a little slow, but maybe that's because it was dark (the work occurred at 6:15), and she was by herself. She has worked in company before, but she won't next week. She'll do either three-eighths or a half next Thursday. She finished in 37 (today). I would be concerned if she went 37 and then finished in 27."

Platinum Tiara - Jockey Shane Sellers got acquainted with his Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies mount Platinum Tiara with a six-furlong work in 1:14 2/5 out of the gate after the renovation break.

"I didn't know what to expect," said Sellers, who is replacing Eibar Coa on Platinum Tiara. "But I am very excited about her. She worked really well, and had plenty left in the tank. They said she was having trouble getting away from the gate with her head up a little bit. She left there good today, handled the racetrack well, and I was impressed. She went quick around there, was very keen, didn't run off and showed some class."

Trainer Joe Waunsch, who saddled Scratch Pad in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, was at the gate for the work.

"I didn't see much, but she came out of the gate very well," Waunsch said. "That's probably what caused her to run bad at Keeneland (finishing fifth in the Alcibiades). This is a running machine. I was so disappointed at Keeneland. I never thought they could keep that filly off the board. She won so easy down there (in Florida), and she would work numbers that would win races."

Waunsch said Platinum Tiara would have her final work next Thursday, a three-furlong blowout.