Speedy Dubai Majesty Heads Grade III Winning Colors on Monday's Memorial Day Card at Churchill Downs

May 23, 2009 by Gary Yunt

Martin Racing Stable and Dan Morgan’s Dubai Majesty, the pacesetter in the Humana Distaff (Grade I) on Kentucky Derby Day, headlines a field of seven fillies and mares ages 3-years-old and up entered for sixth running of the $100,000-added Winning Colors (Grade III), the featured event on a special Memorial Day holiday program at Churchill Downs.
    The six-furlong Winning Colors will go as the 10th race on the 11-race Memorial Day card that kicks off with a 12:45 p.m. (EDT) post time.
    Trained by Bret Calhoun, Dubai Majesty faded to third behind Informed Decision in the seven-furlong Humana Distaff on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs on the May 2 Derby Day undercard.  The race was a virtual replay of the Grade I Vinery Madison over seven furlongs on Polytrack at Keeneland, a race in which Dubai Majesty set the pace only to be run down late by Informed Decision.
Jamie Theriot, who has ridden Dubai Majesty to two of her six victories, has the mount Monday and will exit from post position five.
Dubai Majesty has three wins and three seconds from seven starts at the Winning Colors distance of six furlongs. However, the best six-furlong mark in the Winning Colors belongs to Keep the Peace, who is undefeated in three starts at the distance.
Owned by Gary and Mary West and trained by Eddie Kenneally, Keep the Peace broke her maiden at first asking in November 2007 at Churchill Downs and has since posted runner-up finishes in the 2008 renewals of the Grade III La Troienne and Grade III Dogwood under the Twin Spires. Corey Lanerie has the mount on Monday.
 The field for the Winning Colors, from the rail out, is as follows: Keep the Peace (Lanerie, 118 pounds), Temple Street (Jon Court, 118), Nadeshiko (Shaun Bridgmohan, 120), Tar Heel Mom (Jesus Castanon, 118), Dubai Majesty (Jamie Theriot, 118), Lady Chace (Miguel Mena, 118) and Tiz to Dream (Calvin Borel, 118).
    The race is named for the late Eugene Klein’s Winning Colors, a gray daughter of Caro who won the 1988 Kentucky Derby (GI) to become only the third – and most recent – female to win America’s greatest race.  
She was the first of four Derby winners trained by Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas and returned to Churchill Downs that fall to suffer a narrow loss to unbeaten Personal Ensign in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (GI), a race that is considered by some to be the greatest and most memorable in Breeders’ Cup history.  
Winning Colors was elected Thoroughbred Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2000.