By B. Jason Brooks
Phipps Stable’s 4-year-old filly Self Confident has come into her own this year after winning two of her last three races and is making her next start on opening day of the Keeneland Fall meet, Friday, October 5th.
Entered for Race 5 with a post time of 3:08 pm Eastern, she will break from post No. 8 in a field of a dozen with jockey Manny Franco retaining the mount. The mile and an eighth race for fillies and mares of ages three years and older carries a purse of $120,000.
Self Confident has rewarded the patience of Hall of Fame trainer Claude R. “Shug” McGaughey. After sitting out her sophomore campaign last year, she graduated in her fourth start this year in mid-May at Monmouth. She returned in early July, winning her allowance debut at Laurel.
Last time out in early September at Saratoga, she dead-heated for show honors among allowance company after going three wide around the far turn and angling five wide into the stretch to put in a strong drive to the wire.
A ninth-generation Phipps homebred, Self Confident is from the elite Get Lucky branch of Phipps foundation mare Baby League, the same family as Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, grade 1 winners Bluegrass Cat, Callback, Dance Number, Frost Giant, Girolamo, Got Lucky, Numbered Account, Private Account, Rhythm, and Phipps-bred sires Imagining, Not for Love, and Polish Numbers. (For a detailed analysis of this family, see “A Deep Dive Into the Family of Cover Model’s Munnings Colt in the Keeneland September Sale”.)
Photo: Phipps Stable’s Self Confident with Manny Franco aboard at Saratoga, September 2024.
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