Pashmina edges closer to Kentucky Oaks after Gazelle runner-up finish

Pashmina did enough in the Gazelle to keep her name on the Kentucky Oaks board, and the details matter as much as the finish. She set the pace at Aqueduct, held second behind Always a Runner by 1 1/4 lengths in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 3, then returned to Belmont Park for a solo half-mile in 47.97, a move that told Rob Atras the filly had come out of the race well and was still moving forward.

That is why she looks like more than a body in the field. Pashmina’s record now stands at six starts, one win, one second and two thirds, with $116,911 in earnings, and the pattern is starting to point in one direction. She had already hit the board in the Untapable, the Silverbulletday and the Sunland Park Oaks before the Gazelle, and her third in the Sunland Park Oaks came with an 81 Beyer Speed Figure. For a filly bought for $350,000 by Red White and Blue Racing out of Woods Edge Farm, that is the kind of resume that suggests class without yet screaming finished product.

The distance part of the equation is what makes Pashmina interesting in Louisville. Her Churchill Downs debut was a six-furlong sprint in November, where she broke outward, but she later won a one-turn mile maiden at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 4. That progression matters. She has already shown enough speed to be involved early, yet her best recent work has come as the races have stretched out, and the Gazelle, run over 1 1/8 miles, fit that profile perfectly. Against a likely Oaks field full of fillies still trying to prove they belong at the trip, Pashmina has at least shown she can make the distance look comfortable.

The Gazelle also carried real weight in the Oaks picture. It offered 100 qualifying points to the winner, 50 to second, 25 to third, 15 to fourth and 10 to fifth, and Always a Runner took the race and a berth in the May 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Pashmina did not get the automatic ticket, but she did something nearly as valuable for a late-developing 3-year-old filly: she ran a race that strengthened her case.

Atras said he planned to ship her to Churchill Downs on Tuesday if all stayed on track, and that is the right next step for a filly who has stopped looking like a project and started looking like a legitimate contender. The 2026 Kentucky Oaks is scheduled for Friday, May 1, with gates opening at 11:00 a.m. ET and the first race at 12:30 p.m. ET. Pashmina does not need to be the headline act to matter there. She just needs to keep building on the version of herself that showed up in the Gazelle, because that one belongs in the conversation.