LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In the context of “needed one,” you can give Twilight Gleaming an excuse for getting beat at Keeneland last month. “She ran a big race, only came up a little short,” trainer Wesley Ward said of Twilight Gleaming, the Irish-bred filly who was making her first start since defeating male rivals last November in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. “Now that she’s got one under her belt and is back in with the girls, she ought to be really tough Saturday night.” Indeed, with her just-miss runner-up finish in April 10 Palisades on the Keeneland turf as foundation, Twilight Gleaming will return to action under the Churchill Downs lights as a heavy favorite in the $160,000 Mamzelle, the highlight of an 11-race card that starts at 6 p.m. Eastern. Post time for the feature (race 9) is 10:11, with the last race going at 11:10. :: Want the best bonus in racing? Get a $250 deposit match, $10 free bet, and free Formulator with DRF Bets. Code: WINNING Owned by the Stonestreet Stables of Barbara Banke, Twilight Gleaming will be on a slight turnback when she faces 11 other 3-year-old fillies in the five-furlong Mamzelle. Tyler Gaffalione has the mount from post 5. In the 5 1/2-furlong Palisades, which also was open to males, Twilight Gleaming made all the running as the 9-10 favorite, only to be passed in the final yards by Slipstream, a Christophe Clement-trained colt who won the Futurity last fall on the Belmont Park turf. Prior to her front-running score in the Nov. 5 BC Juvenile Turf Sprint at 5-1 odds – the only time in six races she hasn’t been favored – Twilight Gleaming had established herself as a precocious talent. Following a maiden win at Belmont in her second start, she was second in a field of 21 fillies in the Group 2 Queen Mary last June at Royal Ascot, then won an ungraded stakes at Deauville in France in early August. She won her Breeders’ Cup race off a three-month layoff, then had five more months off before being edged in the Palisades. “We’re getting her back into her rhythm now,” said Ward. If Twilight Gleaming is to be upset at something in the 3-5 range, the most logical perpetrators are Mystic Eyes (post 2, Ricardo Santana Jr.), making her seasonal debut for Todd Pletcher after ending 2021 with a victory in the Nov. 6 Stewart Manor on the Aqueduct turf, and Artos, a solid fourth in the Queen Mary last June for Rusty Arnold. The Mamzelle purse includes $65,000 restricted to registered Kentucky-breds. Twilight Gleaming, who is among the Ward candidates to compete again at the June 14-18 Royal Ascot meet in England, is one of two fillies in here ineligible for those bonuses, along with Artos. They will run for the equivalent of a $95,000 purse. This is the second of three “Downs After Dark” programs at the 44-day spring meet, with the April 30 meet opener having been the first. The third one is set for June 18. There will be one night card (Sept. 24) during the September meet. The local forecast for Saturday calls for a 50 percent rain chance and a daytime high of 81.