The Five Fastest Maidens – Week of Aug. 10 -16

The 2-year-old Flightline colt Inshallah tops this week's rankings.

5 – C's TODAY, ELP, 8/15-5th, 6 furlongs
Beyer Speed Figure- 84 (2nd)
(g, 3, by McKinzie-Into Candy, by Into Mischief)
O-Rodeo Creek Racing. B-Highlight Thoroughbreds (Ky). T-Rob Medina. J-Martin Garcia.
Dismissed at 40/1 odds in his debut, he nevertheless rolled up alongside odds-on Campobasso (below) at the eighth pole with momentum before he was rebuffed. Still, he finished four lengths clear of the rest. His pedigree black type comes from the 2nd and 3rd dams; his dam is a half-sister to Peter Brant's GII Distaff Stakes winner Shidabhuti (best Beyer 90, by Practical Joke).

4 – CAMPOBASSO, ELP, 8/15-5th, 6 furlongs
Beyer Speed Figure – 86
(c, 3, by Street Sense-Italia, by Medaglia d'Oro)
O-SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Stonestreet Stables, Bashar Racing, Determined Stables, Golconda Stable, Waves Edge Capital and Catherine Donovan. B-Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding (Ky). T-Bob Baffert. J-Florent Geroux.
Heavily favored after beginning his career with two runnerup finishes at Churchill Downs (most recently behind subsequent Saratoga allowance winner Tagermeen), the $400,000 yearling ran Baffert's Ellis Park record to 8-for-17 (47%) at the current meet. Campobasso began breezing last fall but had a brief February/March training holdup before he was shipped to Kentucky.

3 – ICANTHELPMYSELF, DMR, 8/15-7th, 5 1/2 furlongs (video)
Beyer Speed Figure- 87 (2nd)
(c, 2, by Mo Town-Road Rager, by Quality Road)
O/B-Jay Em Ess Stable (Ky). T-Brian Koriner. J-Armando Ayuso.
In a loaded field of first-timers, the Samantha Siegel homebred turned in an auspicious debut. The colt by a $5,000 stallion chased the blueblooded Inshallah from the start and slowly cut the margin to 1 1/2 lengths at the end while 4 1/4 clear of the 3rd finisher. Siegel bought and raced the graded-stakes-placed dam.

2 – OVECHKIN, SAR, 8/14-5th, 1 mile (video)
Beyer Speed Figure – 87
(g, 3, by Nyquist-Blonde Bomber, by Fort Larned)
O-Lee/Lexi Lewis. B-Clarkland Farm (Ky). T-Mark Hennig. J-Tyler Gaffalione.
They couldn't skate him on ice and he seemed indifferent to grass in two previous tries, but the class drop to an $85,000 tag may have made the difference–he led wire to wire in his eighth start (and emerged unclaimed). Ovechkin's stakes-winning dam was also 3rd in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies; her most successful offspring has been turf runner Bling (American Pharoah), who never won a stakes but finished 2-3-4 in seven graded races.

1 – INSHALLAH, DMR, 8/15-7th, 5 1/2 furlongs (video)
Beyer Speed Figure- 90
(c, 2, by Flightline-Bar of Gold, by Medaglia d'Oro)
O-KAS Stables. B-Chester/Mary Broman (NY). T-John Sadler. J-Joel Rosario.
The $2.1 million 2-year-old purchase, owned by the Saudi royal family, ran to his Breeders' Cup-centric pedigree. From the first crop of Classic winner Flightline (who sizzled to a 105 Beyer as a 3-year-old in his debut), he's the fifth foal to race out of the Bromans' Filly & Mare Sprint upsetter Bar of Gold. His lone sibling of note is GIII With Anticipation-winning gelding Coinage (who recently ran poorly for $4,000 claiming at Finger Lakes).