The chaos and ebullience of a 49,000-plus strong crowd and a graded stakes-laden card on Travers Day gave way to a much more subdued Sunday afternoon in Saratoga Race Course. By 5:46 when the day’s $100,000 Smart N Fancy Stakes went off, the crowd thinned and the atmosphere was quiet. But as the female sprinters rattled off lightning-fast fractions in the 5 1/2-furlong turf stakes, the track became animated once more.
The crowd let out a collective, “oooh,” expressing amazement and bafflement as Girls Know Best streaked through a :20.85 opening quarter over the firm ground. It was a shake your head, wince and look to the person next to you to make sure they saw it kind of fraction.
Yet before Girls Know Best put up a :43.16 half-mile, the crowd hushed and a pall fell over the racetrack. Bowie, a 4-year-old Malibu Moon daughter named for the late pop star due to her one blue eye, broke down at the midway point of the turn, falling and losing rider Julien Leparoux.
Obscured by the hedge, the crowd racked with concern craned to get a view of the stricken runner. To little fanfare, Girls Know Best raced into he stretch on a 2-length lead as Chanteline advanced up the inside. Chanteline, who raced in fourth early 4 lengths behind the blistering pace, angled to the pacesetter’s outside and took command with a sixteenth to run. She powered away to a 3-length score over Girls Know Best and Morticia in 1:00.85, just .39 seconds off Lady Shipman’s 2015 course record.
The eerie silence remained over Saratoga as the grooms and trainers went to meet their horses, all of them taking a glance at the bleak scene on the far turn. Bowie suffered a catastrophic injury to her left front leg and was euthanized on the racetrack. Leparoux escaped serious injury.
Chanteline’s victory came after a runner-up finish over soft going in the Caress Stakes at Saratoga July 23 over the same distance, and a win in a Parx allowance June 18. The winner of last year’s Richard Scherer Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds and Spring Fever Stakes at Oaklawn Park added her eighth victory in 25 starts and increased her earnings to $524,972 for Steve Asmussen and Ten Broeck Farm.
“She’s gotten really good,” said Asmussen assistant Scott Blasi said. “The race at Parx, she just kind of broke out a little more. I don’t think she really loved the soft ground last time and she still ran second. I’m really impressed with her.
“She’s done really well up here. [Her] condition is better than it has ever been. She’s just thrived up here. I just think she’s doing so much better physically. She’s really happy about her job right now.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. rode Chanteline to her Smart N Fancy win and was aboard for her Caress second and Spring Fever win. The rider has seen a noticeable improvement in the 6-year-old daughter of Majesticperfection.
“She’s an amazing filly,” he said. “She ran really hard last time and didn’t really like the soft turf. She ran an amazing race. She’s improving every time and doing good. We had a lot of confidence in her today and she ran when we asked.
“She’s grown a lot and as she’s gotten older, she’s doing better and now it looks like she really loves the turf.” – Brandon Valvo
• When Jody’s Song won her debut by 3 lengths at Belmont Park last September, trainer Jorge Abreu and owner Steve Weston of Parkland Thoroughbreds thought they had a budding star on their hands. The Scat Daddy daughter beat Purely Lucky in the 1-mile turf maiden, a rival that went on to win next out and competed in the East View and Fleet Indian Stakes.
“I always thought this was a special horse according to her breezes. The day she ran, how she debuted, I knew the ability was there,” Abreu said. “I was pointing her for a stakes.”
After her impressive bow, Jody’s Song suffered a serious injury and required at least six months off. She went to Niall Brennan’s farm in Ocala and got the rest she needed and more. Her connections gave her nine months off before bringing her back into serious training.
Jody’s Song returned to Abreu in early July after a pair of 3-furlong breezes at Brennan’s training facility. She worked three times in Saratoga for Abreu, posting two half-mile moves July 30 and Aug. 6 before working 5 furlongs in 1:01.15 Aug. 17. Her training was inspiring enough that Abreu entered her in Sunday’s seventh, a $77,000 allowance for state-breds going 1 1/16 miles on the inner turf.
“She came in good shape from Niall Brennan’s farm. They did a good job keeping her fit, didn’t let her get fat or anything. I’m excited to have her back in my barn,” Abreu said. “I knew the ability was there with the horse, I just didn’t know if she was fit enough to go a mile and-a-sixteenth.”
Jody’s Song erased the doubt from her trainer’s mind when she came off the final turn just 2 1/4 lengths behind. Rider Manny Franco split rivals Spring Folly and Hope’s Roar and gave Jody’s Song one hit right-handed. Her head dropped and her stride picked up sharply and she drew on even terms with leader Classic Lady with a furlong to run.
“At the eighth pole, I knew I was home free,” Abreu remarked.
Franco switch the stick to his left hand, showed it to her and gave her a quick pop and Jody’s Song powered away from Classic Lady to score by a length in 1:42.36. She’s unbeaten in two starts with $78,350 earned.
“I didn’t know if she was 100 percent primed, I only breezed her three times up here, she’s such a good horse that she overcame all that,” Abreu said.
Weston bought Jody’s Song out of the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale for $250,000. The local owner noticed the filly was bred by his neighbors three doors down on Fifth Ave., Mario and Dawn Martinez of Avanti Stable, and Weston loved the sire.
“They bred the horse and the horse was in the sale and I mentioned to Mario, ‘gee, I’d really like to buy your horse.’ I bought her at the sale in Saratoga and she’s been great,” Weston said. “Before buying ‘Jody’ I had two other Scat Daddys and I liked the fact that she was a Scat Daddy. Niall Brennan and his son both liked the way she looked. I made a bid for her and was fortunate enough to get her.”
For Weston, patience was key in getting Jody’s Song back to the races. He credited the horsemanship of Brennan and Abreu in getting the filly to the Saratoga winner’s circle.
“I sent the horse to Mr. Brennan’s farm and he said the longer you can wait, the better,” Weston said. “We set our goal to get her back by the end of the Saratoga meet and that’s what happened.
“It’s been a tough year, but patience is a virtue. At this point, hopefully she can get black type on her page somewhere. That’s our goal.”
Jody’s Song is Abreu’s sixth winner at the meet from 35 starts and his horses have posted another 13 seconds and thirds good for $364,451. Abreu knew he was primed for a successful summer after his run downstate this spring. Last year, Abreu went just 1-for-10 at the Spa.
“Everything is coming out at the right time,” Abreu said. “I ran some horses at Belmont pointing them for Saratoga and they were running like horses that were aiming to win and they are. I’m very proud.”
Weston met Abreu when the conditioner was working as an assistant for Chad Brown. Impressed by Abreu’s skills, Weston vowed to send him horses if he went out on his own. The partnership has paid off.
“Jorge is outstanding. As his stable gets better, he is getting better. He’s great. His barn is getting stronger and as he gets better horses, you’re going to see him win more and more,” Weston said. “I started about five years ago and I had a horse that I gave to Chad. In conversation over time, I said, ‘if you ever go out on your own, I’ll be happy to give you a horse,’ and I’ve given him a couple. He’s had three starters for me and we’ve won two out of three first time starters and ‘Jody’ back-to-back.
“Winning here, Dawn and Mario, I already got a text from them. It was just great for everybody. Great for Niall who broke her, great for the breeder. Me as an owner, I didn’t have to do much, everybody else did all the work.” – Brandon Valvo
• Merriebelle Stable’s Into The South got it right the second time around and broke her maiden for trainer Ignacio Correas IV in the fifth.
The 2-year-old Into Mischief filly finished second behind the Mike Maker-trained Love My Honey in a similar 6-furlong maiden race July 29. She bumped slightly with the winner in that race and finished 1 1/4 lengths back.
“It was a tough race, there is no easy spot in Saratoga,” said Correas. “I was kind of surprised she lost last time. She had to do part of the dirty work, the post position didn’t help her, so we were in the lead that we never expected. We expected a bit more of a race like today. But you know Saratoga is Saratoga, you run second it’s almost like a win.”
Into the South’s first start was also a big rocky. She finished second in a Churchill Downs maiden race and was disqualified to eighth for swerving out. Correas didn’t chalk it up to the filly being green.
“I don’t think that she was green I think it was a tactical mistake that I think Declan (Cannon) did,” he said. “The filly was training awesome. He was laying sixth with a ton of horse, and instead of looking for room early he found out at the 5/16 that he didn’t have a ton of room and he pushed to make room. He almost took (Adam) Beschizza with him, it was brutal what he did.
“She didn’t show greenness. She makes the hole by herself and she’s very small, so I think that she actually showed that she was in pretty good shape for that race. I don’t know if I would beat the winner that day, but I for sure don’t need to be disqualified that day. Anyway, races are races. We celebrate today.” – David Woods
