Played Hard

Played Hard broke her maiden in her fourth career start, taking a maiden special weight at Churchill Downs on June 20, 2021. She followed that performance with a 4 3/4-length win in a first-level allowance race at Saratoga on Aug. 15.

Played Hard finished her 3-year-old campaign with a pair of runner-up finishes in stakes races, including a Grade 3 second by 2 3/4 lengths in the Comely Stakes at Aqueduct on Nov. 25, 2021.

Played Hard returned for her 4-year-old campaign with three allowance level outings including a pair at Churchill Downs (one win, one 2nd) and a win in a one-mile race at Saratoga on Aug. 4.

She scored the first stakes victory of her career in the Grade 3 $400,000 Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill Downs on Sept. 17, pressing the pace and drawing off to win by 5 3/4 lengths in a time of 1:43.50 for the 1 1/16 miles in a field of five with Joel Rosario aboard.  She followed up the victory in the Locust Grove with a third-place finish in her next start in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes on Oct. 9 at Keeneland, finishing 8 1/2 lengths behind next-out Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Malathaat.

Played Hard was back on top in her next race with a wire-to-wire win in the Grade 3 $500,000 Falls City Stakes going 1 1/8 miles on the main track at Churchill Downs on Nov. 24. She finished in a winning time of 1:49.39 to score by a length over a six-horse field. She returned $2.90 to win as the heavy odds-on favorite.

Played Hard returned from a five-month layoff in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes Presented by Twinspires on the May 5 Longines Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs. She rallied to seize command in deep stretch and held off 2022 Kentucky Oaks winner Secret Oath by a neck in a thrilling stretch duel to secure her first career Grade 1 win and the first for trainer Philip Bauer.

She was bred in Kentucky by the sire Into Mischief out of the mare Well Lived by Tiznow. She was purchased for $280,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2019 for Rigney Racing.