It is rare to have a filly in the field for the Display Stakes, a seven-furlong race on Tapeta for two-year-olds. These days the race is run in the autumn close to the Glorious Song Stakes, considered the filly-equivalent of the Display.
But in a year when there has been a cornucopia of nice juvenile fillies racing in Canada, trainer Kevin Attard entered three in the race, although he scratched two of them, Bolt Enoree and Rosa (a recent stakes winner), as they took part in the Glorious Song.
It was up to TRIPOLINA (Constitution – Ballykiss by Street Boss) to tackle seven boys and, well, boy, she was up to the task. Under jockey Kazushi Kimura, Tripolina settled nicely just a couple of lengths off the speed of Chiefswood Stables’ Western Whirl and Gary Barber’s Magic Slips. She lost a bit of ground into the stretch but kicked in and went clear to win by 2 3/4 lengths in 1:21.81, slightly faster than A Little Frisky’s Glorious Song’s win. The Kentucky-bred gelding Two Ghosts, owned by Hoolie Racing Stable, was second, with Western Whirl third.
Hammered down to 6-to-5 by the bettors, Tripolina became the first filly to win the Display since One Lift did it in 1994 when the race was at 1 1/16 miles. Before that, Cougar Kitten won in 1978, and a couple of good fillies, Cesca and French Wind, won in the 1960s.
A winner of her career debut in August by 4 3/4 lengths with a 72 Beyer Speed Figure, Tripolina is owned by X-Men Racing 3, Madaket Stable and SF Bloodstock. The Kentucky bred filly was a $70,000 yearling purchase last year at the Keeneland September sale by X-Men’s leader Donato Lanni.
“We kind of looked at the race set up and obviously we’re trying to see if we can win both divisions.” said trainer Kevin Attard about deciding what fillies to race in the Display and Glorious Song. “We thought this filly here suited this race best. It just worked out like we planned.
“She’s very smart, she is big kind of scopey filly. I don’t like to rush them off their feet too early, if she broke well and kind of wanted to be in the early fight, we would have let her do that. But on paper it looked like there would be plenty of speed so we hoped it would transpire like it did and it worked out in our favour today,” Attard commented.
Attard’s fillies Bolt Enoree and Rosa were sixth and seventh respectively in the Glorious Song.
Tripolina was bred by WinStar and she is from the unplaced mare Ballykiss. Ballykiss is the dam of multiple stakes winner Miss J McKay ($466,893).
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