Trainer Cherie DeVaux has a 3-year-old filly entered in the $200,000 Wonder Again Stakes (G2T) May 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Yet even if Sy B wins the Wonder Again by a margin akin to Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes (G1), it will not match what her trainer accomplished the previous weekend.
On Black-Eyed Susan Day at Pimlico Race Course, DeVaux stood center stage during the weekend of the middle jewel in the Triple Crown as she won three stakes on the May 17 card, a stellar first for her through six years of training.
"It was really fun. The horses we brought there; the timing fit for them. It all worked out and came together," she said.
That hat trick of Shotgun Hottie in the Allaire du Pont Distaff Stakes, She Feels Pretty in the Hilltop Stakes, and Pyrenees in the Pimlico Special Stakes (G3) allowed DeVaux to capture the Maryland Jockey Club's trainer bonus by four points over Steve Asmussen and collect a $50,000 prize.
"'I've been waiting for it to set in because I've been so busy," DeVaux said about the accomplishment. "It's taken a few days to catch up and get my mind around what happened. It's hard to win any stakes race much less three in the same day. It was special to be part of it."
After enjoying a career year in 2023 with 56 wins and $5.55 million in earnings, DeVaux is well on her way toward another banner campaign. With a stable of 100 horses that will soon grow to 115 with the arrival of 2-year-olds, she has 25 wins and $2.5 million in earnings through May 24.
"Each year the stable has organically grown," DeVaux said. "I really don't want a huge stable."
The standout among the stable is the 4-year-old filly sprinter Vahva, a daughter of Gun Runner who became a grade 1 winner in her last start by taking the Derby City Distaff Stakes (G1) at Churchill Downs May 4.
DeVaux said Vahva will likely run in the June 22 Chicago Stakes (G3) at Churchill as a springboard to the Aug. 24 Ballerina Handicap (G1) at Saratoga Race Course and the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) at Del Mar.
As for Sy B, Blue Heaven Farm's homebred daughter of English Channel exits an April 5 win in a 1 3/16-mile maiden special weight race at Keeneland in her third career start and first on turf.
"She seems to be getting better with time and should appreciate as much distance as she can get. We thought this would be a good spot to get her in stakes company," DeVaux said about the mile-and-an-eighth Wonder Again for 3-year-old fillies, which offers automatic bids to the July 6 Belmont Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1T) to the top three finishers.
Out of the Belong to Me mare Ocean Drive, Sy B made her debut Feb. 7 on an all-weather surface at Turfway Park, finishing third, and then was eighth in her subsequent start at Turfway.
If Sy B can follow the lead of her stablemates at Pimlico last weekend, it would give DeVaux her second graded stakes win in New York, where she served as an assistant to Chad Brown before taking out her trainer's license. During her tenure with the four-time Eclipse Award winner, she played a key role in the development of the 2017 champion turf mare Lady Eli and her care when she staged a heroic and successful battle with laminitis.
Speaking of Brown, he will send out three of the six turf starters in search of a record-extending sixth victory in the Wonder Again.
Brown's trio is led by John Stewart's Sweet Rebecca, a daughter of American Pharoah who is 2-for-2 with a win in the Memories of Silver Stakes in her last outing for Resolute Racing.
He will also saddle maiden winners Segesta, a Ghostzapper filly owned by Juddmonte, and Grayosh, a daughter of Yoshida owned by Flanagan Racing.
The field also includes Sanibel Island Stakes winner Vive Veuve and Curlin's Girl as well as two main-track-only starters in Six Pack Senorita and Golden Degree.
The Wonder Again will be contested as the second of nine races on a card that will start at 1:05 p.m.
After Sunday's program, racing will resume June 6 with the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga that features the historic first-ever Belmont Stakes at the Spa June 8.
Belmont at the Big A, Monday, May 27, 2024, Race 2Entries: Wonder Again S. (G2T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Segesta (KY) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 118 Chad C. Brown 3/1 2 2Grayosh (KY) Manuel Franco 118 Chad C. Brown 6/1 3 3Vive Veuve (KY) Javier Castellano 118 Jack Sisterson 4/1 4 4Sy B (KY) John R. Velazquez 118 Cherie DeVaux 5/1 5 5Curlin's Girl (KY) Jose Lezcano 118 Linda Rice 9/2 6 6Sweet Rebecca (KY) Tyler Gaffalione 120 Chad C. Brown 2/1 7 7Six Pack Senorita (MD) Rider TBA 118 Rudy R. Rodriguez 9/2 8 8Golden Degree (KY) Rider TBA 118 Linda Rice 5/2
