Bottle of Rouge has been declared out of the May 1 Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs after exiting an April 26 workout at the Louisville, Ky., track with a cough, according to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. Her defection clears the way for Go Go Grey Stable's longshot Lovely Grey, a Vekoma filly owned by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, to draw into the $1.5 million race for 3-year-old fillies.
Bottle of Rouge, a gray or roan Vino Rosso filly, winner of the Virginia Oaks and Sunland Park Oaks this year, breezed 5 furlongs in :48 4/5 Sunday morning. Baffert's wife, Jill, owns Bottle of Rouge.
Even with that filly out, Baffert still has one of the Oaks favorites in three-time stakes winner Explora, a Blame filly who races for longtime clients Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman.
Lovely Grey, the first of three also-eligibles in the Oaks, is cross-entered in the $600,000 Edgewood Stakes (G3T), a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-old fillies on the Kentucky Oaks undercard—though that entry was an apparent alternative if an Oaks start did not materialize.
Portnoy excitedly posted Sunday on X about her upcoming participation in the Oaks, a 1 1/8-mile dirt race. Twice stakes placed at Turfway Park on Tapeta and a maiden winner last year on turf on Colonial Downs, Lovely Grey has only raced once on dirt, running fourth on debut in the slop last summer at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
