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Tuscan Evening wins fifth in a row in Gamely While it was no surprise that 4-5 favorite TUSCAN EVENING (Ire) (Oasis Dream [GB]) racked up her fifth straight victory in Saturday's $250,000 Gamely S. (G1) at Hollywood Park, the manner of her success was not as easily foreseen. Widely expected to dictate on the front end, as in her past two scores over a route of ground, the Jerry Hollendorfer mare was instead relegated to a stalking role when the enterprising Cat by the Tale (Tale of the Cat) was hustled out of the gate. Regular rider Rafael Bejarano simply went to Plan B aboard William de Burgh's Tuscan Evening, who employed stalk-and-pounce tactics to earn her first Grade 1 coup, and to boost her earnings past the $1 million mark. Cat by the Tale had not been able to catch Tuscan Evening in their previous meetings, so she tried different tactics by gunning to the lead herself in the Gamely. As she carved out fractions of :24 1/5, :48 1/5 and 1:11 4/5, a patient Tuscan Evening was parked just to her outside in a tracking second. Leaving the far turn, Tuscan Evening launched her bid and again established her superiority over a game Cat by the Tale by midstretch. Tuscan Evening put her head in front through one mile in 1:35 3/5, but the race was far from over. Champion Forever Together (Belong to Me), who had been positioned closer than usual by new rider Rajiv Maragh, loomed boldly in midstretch. Tuscan Evening kept finding more, however, and held off Forever Together by a half-length, completing 1 1/8 miles on the firm turf in 1:47 1/5. The popular winner rewarded her backers with mutuels of $3.80, $2.40 and $2.10 while sparking the $1 exotics -- $4.30 (exacta), $22 (trifecta) and $95.40 (4-3-8-5 superfecta). "We couldn't ask her to do more than she did today," Hollendorfer said. "We thought we would be on the lead, but I talked to Rafael about it and we agreed that if someone did something different we would adjust, and he adjusted perfectly. I was hoping she could hold the other mare (Forever Together) off. I'm very proud of her -- she's very game. It was just what the doctor ordered. "I don't think she has a best distance," the trainer added of the versatile mare. "She does what she has to do. She's got a tremendous heart, a tremendous kick and a rider that fits her perfectly." "Unbelievable," Bejarano marveled. "This mare improves a lot every time. I knew the three (Forever Together) was going to be a tough horse, but my mare tries so hard, she wasn't going to let the other horse take the race. I was supposed to be on the lead, but when I saw the eight (Cat by the Tale) go to the front, I just got my mare to relax. I rode her the last six or seven times and I knew she could do anything, go to the lead or come from behind. "I was looking for Forever Together and I waited as long as I could. I just hit her a couple of times and when she saw that other mare coming, she really dug in. I thought I had a lot of horse left at the end." Forever Together, the 9-5 second choice, yielded $2.80 and $2.20 for finishing second by three-quarters of a length. "I'm really delighted," trainer Jonathan Sheppard said of Forever Together. "I thought she ran real well. I thought she was very game. It's hard to run down speed at this track, but she gave it a good try." "My mare ran as hard as she could," said Maragh, who inherited the mount on Forever Together from the injured Julien Leparoux. "She left everything on the track. It was just a tough horse race. I have to give a lot of credit to the winner because my mare is a true champion, and every time I came at her, she found extra. I had the ideal trip. Both mares ran awesome." The 16-1 Cat by the Tale saved third by a neck from the belatedly-closing Well Monied (Maria's Mon) and paid $3.80 to show. General Consensus (Giant's Causeway), Gotta Have Her (Royal Academy) and a tailed-off Princess Haya (Street Cry [Ire]) completed the order of finish, and Medaglia d'Amour (Medaglia d'Oro) was scratched. With the $150,000 winner's share, Tuscan Evening increased her bankroll to $1,049,408 from her 26-11-4-5 record. The five-year-old bay was recently hailed as Santa Anita's Horse of the Meet, in recognition of her four consecutive graded tallies over a remarkable range of distances. Kicking off her skein with a rallying victory in the January 3 Monrovia H. (G3) at about 6 1/2 furlongs on the downhill turf, Tuscan Evening captured the one-mile Buena Vista H. (G2) on Presidents' Day by 2 1/4 lengths, then wired the 1 1/8-mile Santa Ana H. (G2) on March 21 by 1 1/4 lengths. She completed her Santa Anita sweep when successfully stepping up to 1 1/4 miles in the April 17 Santa Barbara H. (G2), where she led throughout and scored by a tidy length. Tuscan Evening made her mark chiefly as a miler last season, garnering the Royal Heroine Mile (G2), Las Palmas H. (G2) and Redondo Beach S. and finishing second in the Matriarch S. (G1) to conclude 2009. She also showed good form in downhill turf sprints when placing third in both the Las Cienegas H. (G3) and Senator Ken Maddy H. (G3). Formerly based in Ireland with John Joseph Murphy, Tuscan Evening placed in four stakes as a juvenile in 2007, chief among them the Debutante S. (Ire-G2), without managing to break her maiden. At three, the bay crossed the wire a close second in the Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1), just a head back of Halfway to Heaven (Ire), only to be disqualified and placed fourth. Bred by Hascombe and Valiant Studs in the Emerald Isle, Tuscan Evening was a bargain $8,762 yearling at Tattersalls October. She most recently went through the auction ring at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in November, fetching a bid of $650,000. Tuscan Evening was produced by Park Hill S. (Eng-G3) runner-up The Faraway Tree (Suave Dancer), who is herself a half-sister to French Group 1 winner Sasuru (Most Welcome [GB]) and English Group 2 heroine Sally Rous (Ire) (Rousillon). Tuscan Evening hails from the family of Rose Gypsy (GB) (Green Desert), queen of the 2001 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas) (Fr-G1), and English highweight Crystal Capella (Cape Cross [Ire]), who was runner-up as the defending champion in the Pride S. (Eng-G2) last October at Newmarket.
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