Kuhlu collects win No. 2

Pressing pacesetter Just Be There from the opening steps and dueling that horse and 2/1 favorite Princes Even all the way to the wire, my 2010 juvenile sales-tip Kuhlu prevailed by a norse in a three-horse photo Wednesday at Arlington Park.

Just Be There held on for second by a head over Princes Even in the $15,000 claimer. Time for about a mile on turf was 1:40.95.

I labeled Kuhlu among my "potential second-chance deals" after she failed to meet reserve at a bid of $22,000 as Hip 26 at last year's Keeneland April sale. Unplaced in one start at 2, she broke her maiden Feb. 6 going 6.5 furlongs on the all-weather surface at Turfway Park for a $30,000 tag. Wednesday's turf win was her second victory in six lifetime starts, earning $16,180 over those races for owner Tommie M. Lewis.

Kuhlu was bred in Kentucky by Dr. Kirk A. Shiner.

I recommended the bay filly by Ghostzapper-Golden Antigua, by Hansel, despite her 11-flat eighth-mile drill at Keeneland, which had to have held down her price. I figured that with Ghostzapper as her sire, the filly would not be the sharpest 2-year-old, but should progress nicely at 3 and 4. She is also the daughter of an Italian turf stakes-placed dam, who also won six times at 4 and 5 in the States, including the Nicole Stakes at Hawthorne and has produced 5-for-5 winners. And, as the half-sister to multiple G3-winner (and AWS track record-setter) GIANT GIZMO and stakes-placed Slick Pardoned Me, Kuhlu comes from a successfully producing female line and should have some prospect as a broodmare herself, even if she never earns her own blacktype.

Follow Kuhlu and the remainder of my 187-member 2010 juvenile sales tips here.