Cathryn Sophia and Javier Castellano in the Davona Dale. Gulfstream Park photo.

As a yearling, the bay filly wasn’t terribly remarkable. Her breeder, Robert Manfuso, thought that the modest $30,000 she brought at 2014 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic fall yearling sale was a fair price, and when she got to the barn of trainer John Servis, his assessment of her was frank.

“I wasn’t impressed,” he said, sitting in his office at the Palm Meadows training facility in Boynton Beach, Florida last month. “She’s not going to sweep you off your feet when you look at her. She’s crooked, and she can be a little bit of a handful.”

Named Cathryn Sophia by owner Chuck Zacney, that unexceptional-looking Maryland-bred filly has run her way to an undefeated record and favoritism in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland on Saturday, winning her four starts by a combined 40 1/2 lengths, most recently taking the Grade 2 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park in February by seven..

And while Zacney liked her looks and catalog page at the sale and was pleasantly surprised that she didn’t bring a higher price, he never dreamed that she’d be his Kentucky Oaks filly.

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