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Spotlight: Excellent Meeting, Thoroughbred Racehorse
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Posted: Friday May 14, 1999 11:07 AM
Excellent Meeting is a filly phenom. |
Sire: General Meeting
Stable: Golden Eagle Farm
Upcoming Event: 1999 Preakness Stakes, Pimlico Race Course, Baltimore, Saturday, May 15
Worth Watching Because: When it comes to horse racing, females are few and far between -- especially those that have four legs. This year's Preakness, however, will feature three-year-old filly Excellent Meeting, trained by Bob Baffert, a veteran of the Triple Crown scene. She just might give the "guys" a run for their money, which at Pimlico means a $1 million purse.
"In the Kentucky Derby she showed me that she can run with the boys," Baffert said Thursday morning. "She had a rough trip, and down the lane she was bumped, but she kept coming."
Only four times since its first running in 1873 has the Preakness been won by a filly. The most recent female victory came in 1924, when Nellie Morse prevailed. Since then only nine fillies have entered the race. Excellent Meeting, this year's winner of the Santa Anita (Calif.) Oaks, has proven that she can compete. In a crowded, bumping field of 20 at the Derby, Excellent Meeting surged from dead last to finish a respectable fifth, beating out Baffert's highly-regarded General Challenge and finishing less than three lengths behind the winner, Charismatic.
Kent Desormeaux will be aboard Excellent Meeting at Saturday's second jewel of the Triple Crown. The filly will start in the middle of the pack, from a favorable No. 7 post position. The race may only be a mile and three-sixteenths, but if Excellent Meeting emerges victorious the celebration may be endless.
Greatest Success: A fifth-place finish in this year's Kentucky Derby.
Quote/Unquote: You'll have to get that straight from the horse's mouth.
Cool Fact: This is the first time since 1988 that a filly will run in the Preakness. You go, girl!
Come back soon for a new women's sports Spotlight.
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