Photo:

Renee Torbit/Churchill Downs

The 3-year-old filly Two Sharp collected the first stakes win of her brief career with a jaw-dropping gate-to-wire romp over seven older fillies and mares in Saturday’s 39th running of the Grade 3, $297,500 Chilukki at Churchill Downs.

Breaking from post position No. 4, Two Sharp zipped the first quarter- mile in 22.86 seconds, the half in 44.86 seconds and six furlongs in 1:09.11 – the fastest three-quarter mile split in race history – before she stopped the teletimer for one mile over a fast track in a swift 1:34.40 while defeating Royal Spa by 5 3/4 lengths under wraps.

The final time was the second-fastest in 39 runnings of the stakes race, only behind the race’s namesake, who posted a 1:33.57 final time in 2000, when it was known as the Churchill Downs Distaff Handicap.

New York-based Junior Alvarado flew to Kentucky for mount and rode for locally based trainer Phil Bauer.

“It definitely was worth the trip down here,” Alvarado said. “She broke so well and I just tried to stay out of her way all I could. She was opening up on her own and traveled great the entire way.”

This was only the fifth career start for Two Sharp, who broke her maiden in her second start on Aug. 2 at Saratoga by 11 1/4 lengths. She followed that effort with a neck defeat to Grade 1-winning filly Brightwork in the $200,000 Prioress (G3) at Saratoga on Aug. 31.

Two Sharp tuned up for Saturday’s Chilukki with a 6 1/4-length first-level allowance win over 6 1/2 furlongs at Keeneland on Oct. 12.

“She’s been a filly we always had high regards for,” Bauer said. “In each of her four prior starts she’s run very well and continues to improve each time. We added a small cup set of blinkers today to just keep her a little more focused. They looked like they did the job down the lane. You could tell down the backside Junior was just letting her go at her own pace and she was opening up on the field. She showed us there was no issues handling the mile distance and maybe could get a little further one day if she keeps running like that.”

Her next start is expected to come against Grade 1 company in the $300,000 La Brea for 3-year-old fillies at seven furlongs on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita in Southern California.

“This race set her great to try that next,” said owner Richard Rigney, who races under the Rigney Racing banner.

Two Sharp banked the $180,350 first prize in the Chilukki and rewarded her backers with $3.94, $3.18 and $2.40 as the 4-5 favorite.

Royal Spa, ridden by Flavien Prat, finished second at odds of 8-1 and paid $6.82 and $4.82. Taxed was another 2 3/4 lengths back in third at 8-1 under Brian Hernandez Jr. and returned $4.32. Oeuvre was fourth and was followed by Positano Sunset, Pigalle, Fancy and Imonra.

Two Sharp’s record now stands at 5: 3-2-0 for earnings of $366,698. She is a bay daughter of Twirling Candy out of the Distorted Humor mare Double Sharp and was bred in Kentucky by Woods Edge Farm.

Known as the Churchill Downs Distaff from 1996-2004, the Chilukki was renamed in 2005 to honor Stonerside Stable’s graded stakes-winning filly. The daughter of Cherokee Run made four starts at Churchill Downs, all of which were victories. Chilukki won the 2000 edition of this race in what would be her final start with a final time of 1:33.57 – a track record at the time.