A competitive field of 12 3-year-old fillies, including eight last-out stakes winners led by Stonestreet Stables' homebred Eclatant, has been entered for the $600,000 Eight Belles Stakes (G2) May 2 at Churchill Downs.
Eclatant, by six-time leading general sire Into Mischief , is out of the winning Scat Daddy mare Downside Scenario, making her a full sister to 2020 Bourbon Stakes (G2T) winner Mutasaabeq, who also ran third in the 2020 Hopeful Stakes (G1) on the dirt at Saratoga Race Course.
Eclatant won her first two starts sprinting at age 2 then finished third in the 1 1/16-mile Golden Rod Stakes (G2) behind a pair of fillies—Good Cheer and Quietside—who could go as the top two choices in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) two races after the Eight Belles Friday.
Trainer Brad Cox got Eclatant away from the division leaders and back to one turn in her 3-year-old debut, and she responded with a 1 1/4-length win in the seven-furlong Forward Gal Stakes (G3) Feb. 1 at Gulfstream Park. It took Eclatant a month to work back after that win, but she has been hitting the work tab regularly since March 2, including three published moves at Churchill since shipping north from Florida.
Her main competition appears to be the Godolphin homebred Verity, winner of the seven-furlong Beaumont Stakes (G2) April 6 at Keeneland. A winner of three in a row, the Nyquist filly is a head away from being undefeated in four starts, though her best surface remains undeclared. The Eoin Harty trainee won twice on the synthetic track at Turfway Park and then took the Beaumont in the slop.
Reddam Racing's Look Forward, who was based at Santa Anita Park before running sixth in the April 7 Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland, is another who could appreciate Friday's one-turn configuration. The Bolt d'Oro filly is undefeated in two sprint starts, including victory in the Jan. 5 Santa Ynez Stakes at Santa Anita. Look Forward also finished second to Kentucky Oaks contender Tenma in the 2024 Starlet Stakes (G2) going 1 1/16 miles at Los Alamitos Race Course.
If the favorites don't perform, the Eight Belles boasts an additional six last-out stakes winners moving up in class to test the graded ranks: Unchained Elaine, Princess Aliyah, Kimchi Cat, Bourbon Memory, Impulse Buy, and Louisiana-bred Blue Fire, whom Stonestreet owns in partnership with Peter Leidel.
The field is completed by Keeneland allowance winner Evanescence, who rallied from dead last to win going away by 3 1/2 lengths April 7; 2024 Astoria Stakes winner Whatintheliteral; and Mendela, who broke her maiden by 6 3/4 lengths March 30 at Oaklawn Park.
Churchill Downs, Friday, May 2, 2025, Race 9Entries: Eight Belles S. presented by Sysco (G2)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Unchained Elaine (KY) Junior Alvarado 118 Patrick L. Biancone 20/1 2 2Evanescence (KY) Luan Machado 118 Eddie Kenneally 20/1 3 3Princess Aliyah (KY) Nik Juarez 118 D. Wayne Lukas 15/1 4 4Whatintheliteral (FL) Jose E. Morelos 118 Jena M. Antonucci 30/1 5 5Verity (KY) Vincent Cheminaud 120 Eoin G. Harty 3/1 6 6Kimchi Cat (KY) Edgar Morales 118 Thomas M. Amoss 15/1 7 7Mendela (KY) Rafael Bejarano 118 Chris A. Hartman 15/1 8 8Blue Fire (LA) Jose L. Ortiz 118 Steven M. Asmussen 12/1 9 9Bourbon Memory (KY) Gerardo Corrales 118 Brendan P. Walsh 8/1 10 10Impulse Buy (KY) Flavien Prat 118 Rodolphe Brisset 7/2 11 11Look Forward (KY) Umberto Rispoli 118 Michael W. McCarthy 12/1 12 12Eclatant (KY) Luis Saez 120 Brad H. Cox 5/2
