Twenty-nine partners in Kentucky Oaks contender Counting Stars. Twenty-nine different roads to Churchill Downs. One gate, one break, one moment that brings them all together. Counting Stars doesn’t just carry the black and gold silks, she carries every one of them onto a grand stage Friday night.

The filly has built up to the Big Night with a couple of superb weeks of training in Louisville.

Mark said this week, “I think she’s better than ever,  just her energy level level, the way she looks, the way she’s moving. We’re just trying to keep her like that.”

Counting Stars will hopefully shine as the Oaks moves under the lights and onto a prime-time stage for the first time, to be run at 8:40 ET and airing on NBC’s main channel in a broadcast that begins at 8 ET.  She is #4 in the $1.5-million Oaks with jockey Fransico Arriets to get a leg up from Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse.

This is the same venue where Counting Stars starred in her debut in September when she drew off to win first-time out on September 25.