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Trainer Todd Pletcher confirmed that King of Prussia Stable’s homebred filly Princess of Sylmar will compete in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I).
The daughter of Majestic Warrior will be ridden by Mike Smith in the May 3 race.
“There are a lot of really good fillies this year and they’re coming up to the race really well,” Pletcher said during an April 29 press conference at Churchill Downs. “I think it’s one of the deepest Oaks fields we’ve seen in a while.”
Princess of Sylmar, who has won or placed in five of her six lifetime starts, captured a pair of stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack this year: the Jan. 5 Busanda and the Feb. 2 Busher. She will enter the Run for the Lilies off a second-place finish behind fellow Oaks contender Close Hatches in the April 6 Gazelle Stakes (gr. II).
Princess of Sylmar turned in her final work prior to the Oaks when she covered four furlongs in :49 1/5 at Churchill April 27.
The Kentucky Oaks-bound filly was bred in Pennsylvania by King of Prussia’s Ed Stanco,chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania-based White Mountain Insurance Co. Stanco has previously been involved in horse racing partnerships with So Madcapt Stables, and campaigned the grade II-winning mare Capeside Lady.
Princess of Sylmar is out of the Catienus mare Storm Dixie.