BELIEVE YOU CAN WINS THE KENTUCKY OAKS!

　
Believe You Can wore down Broadway's Alibi in the Churchill Downs homestretch to win the $1,000,000 Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) by about three-quarters of a length.

Ridden to victory by Rosie Napravnik, who became the first female rider to win the Oaks, Believe You Can got off to an alert start and settled into the second position early on, just behind Broadway's Alibi. The two rattled off fractions of :23.12 and :47.47 while leading the rest of the field by about a length. On Fire Baby was racing in third toward the inside, followed closely by Colonial Empress, Eden's Moon, and Grace Hall. Summer Applause was racing in midpack, while Jemima's Pearl, Yara, and Sacristy were toward the rear of the field.

The positions remained relatively unchanged down the backstretch and into the far turn, with Broadway's Alibi and Believe You Can continuing to lead the way. In fact, those two remained together into the homestretch, where the put away challlenges from Grace Hall and On Fire Baby to open up a commanding lead.

In the vicinity of the eighth pole, it appeared as though Broadway's Alibi might have enough left in the tank to hold off her rival. But Believe You Can just kept on running, eventually taking over the lead and pulling away late to score a game victory, stopping the clock for nine furlongs in 1:49.50. Grace Hall stayed on well for third, while Summer Applause edged out a tiring On Fire Baby for fourth.

The winner is trained by Larry Jones and owned by Brereton C. Jones. She has now won three graded stakes races, the other two being the Fair Grounds Oaks (gr. II) and Tempted Stakes (gr. III). She also won the Silverbulletday Stakes at Fair Grounds to start off 2012.

-Keelerman