Sweetest Chant- $150.000 Purse
GP- For Fillies Three Years Old
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
February 1, 2025

A field of six will be heading to the starting gate for the 17th running of the Sweetest Chant, which is for three-year-old fillies on the turf. The race was a Grade 3 for a while, getting that designation in 2016, but it was downgraded back to an ungraded stake after last year. The 2024 race was won by Smokey Stover’s Wonderful World, a still active filly though she has not won since the Sweetest Chant. J R Velazquez has been a good person to have aboard, as the jockey has five wins, including last year. Here’s a look at those running this year:

1- Ruths House (TwinTowersRacing, ridden by R M Hernandez)- After finishing fourth in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, this Bronx Bomber filly kicks off her three-year-old campaign here. As a two-year-old, she won twice in six races, with the biggest win being the $150.000 Flower just eleven days before the BC. The certainly earned her a rest, and she’s the only former BC runner here.

2- Fierce Competitor (Mb Stables, ridden by M Franco)- Only raced twice as a two-year-old, and broke her maiden in early November with a three length win at WO. Following that, she ran in the $150.000 Golden Brew, being one of three horses in this field that come out of that race here at GP. Fierce Competitor was a strong third there, and three of the fillies coming here off of that ran in close proximity to one another.

3- Haukea (High Voltage, ridden by J R Velazquez)- The jockey is looking for his sixth win in this race while riding Haukea. This filly ran solely on the dirt as a two-year-old, and fared well, winning the $100.000 Sorority Stakes at MTH. The plan shifted to the grass this year, and she comes here as one of those fillies that ran in the Golden Brew, where she only missed by a length.

4- United Knightley (Saratoga Stud, ridden by P Lopez)- Makes her stake debut here after running fourth out at SA in an optional claimer. Her two races right before that were wins, including an allowance at PRX. Works as well as anyone here, so she can certainly pull it off, but she wasn’t competitive enough at SA for me to include her in my picks.

5- Mean Girl (D J C Racing Stables, ridden by R L Moore)- With seven starts as of this point, she is the most experienced filly in the field. It did take her five races to break her maiden, and when it happened, it was at FE. The trainer liked what he saw there and ran her in the $135.000 Tepin at AQU after that, where she was okay, finishing fourth and in the middle of the field. Dropped into a TUP optional claimer follow that, where she won. So, she’s been up and down as of late, showing her potential, but perhaps not hitting her groove as of yet.

6- Lightning Blackout (Red Fox Farms, ridden by Edg Perez)- One of the three horses here that rain in the Golden Brew here last month, and she had the best finish out of all of them, placing second. But again, all three of them were heads apart in reality. It was her fourth start and came fresh off of breaking her maiden at AQU. I really like a work at she had at the Big A right before that and feel this is a filly on the upswing. She’ll get my nod here.

Prediction: 6-1-2-3

— NS

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded