Sheer Drama readies for Ballerina with four-furlong move

Edited Press Release

Multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Sheer Drama has begun her preparations for Saratoga’s $500,000 Ballerina Stakes (G1) on August 27 with a half-mile breeze at her South Florida training base on Thursday morning.

Harold L. Queen's homebred covered four furlongs over Gulfstream Park’s fast main track in :47.50 for her first official work since finishing fifth in the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) on Belmont Stakes Day.

"She worked excellent," said trainer David Fawkes, who will return to the Sunshine State this weekend to oversee the training of the Burning Roma mare. "She went :24 and three (for a quarter-mile), :47 and two, galloped out in 1:00 and three and (out six furlongs in 1:)14."

Winner of last year's Personal Ensign Stakes (G1),

In 2015, Sheer Drama proved a commanding force in the older filly and mare division with three wins and four seconds from eight starts throughout the year. She opened the season with a pair of seconds in the Florida Sunshine Millions Distaff and Rampart Stakes (G3) before romping by 6 1/2 lengths in the Royal Delta Stakes (G2) in March. Another pair of runner-up efforts followed, this time in the La Troienne Stakes (G1) and Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) at Churchill Downs, before Sheer Drama added both the Delaware Handicap (G1) and the Spa’s Personal Ensign Stakes (G1) to her resume.

After closing out her five-year-old campaign with a fourth-placing in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Sheer Drama turned in a game victory in her six-year-old debut in the Madison Stakes (G1) this spring at Keeneland before finishing third in the La Troienne on the Kentucky Oaks undercard and fifth in the Phipps.

"We just backed off on her for a little while," Fawkes explained. "We walked her for a few weeks just to freshen her up, and she's been back galloping for a couple of weeks and we breezed her today. We'll work her one more time and then bring her up here."

In his absence, Fawkes' Saratoga-based string will remain a family operation under the watchful eye of his 18-year-old daughter Natalie, who has worked for her father for nearly two years before receiving her assistant trainer's license earlier this summer.

Sheer Drama photo courtesy of NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography