Juvenile Fillies Diary

JUVENILE FILLIES DIARY

AUGUST 17, 2007

by Tom Joyce

What's up with the Saratoga gate crew? For the third time this meet, NYRA has

had to issue a refund due to a horse being declared a non-starter at the break.

This has taken about $300,000 out of their coffers and you would expect that the

finest racetrack in America would have the finest gate crew as well. All too

often the horsemanship skills on display as the horses are being loaded are more

than a little dubious, and the starter, Richard Brosseau, is not real quick to

pull the trigger, which is just asking for trouble. I understand what a

difficult job this is, and I hope they are taking steps to resolve this issue.

A bad break can cause a horse to be eliminated from contention, which is

exactly what happened to PHANTOM INCOME (Montbrook) in Wednesday's Adirondack S.

(G2). Thankfully, NYRA did the right thing and issued a refund as it appeared

that an assistant starter still had a hold of the filly when they sprung the

latch. Most of the time, however, a bad break is the result of bad luck, and no

refunds are offered.

MORE HAPPY (Vindication) simply ran the field off their feet through blazing

early fractions of :21 4/5 and :44 4/5 before opening up a big advantage in

midstretch and then desperately holding on to a rapidly diminishing

three-quarters of a length victory. The dark bay lass -- yet another spitting

image of her freshman sire -- flagged her tail in resentment each time jockey

Rafael Bejarano went to the stick. The Bob Baffert trainee ran six furlongs in

1:10, then became visibly exhausted, running her final sixteenth of a mile in :7

2/5.

"Mr. Baffert told me to let her break from the gate, and see what happens and

let her run and don't take a hold of her," Bejarano said.

Baffert, a former Quarter Horse trainer, knows that the most important thing

in traditional American dirt racing is speed, and he gave a lesson on that in

the Adirondack. Perhaps that should have been expected, but it was not that easy

to predict.

More Happy dueled in hand through fractions of :22 4/5, :46 3/5 and :59

before completing 5 1/2 furlongs in a modest 1:05 3/5 in her debut on Polytrack

at Del Mar. The only indication that the public had that she was really fast was

her quick gate works on dirt at Saratoga and Santa Anita. If one did a little

homework, they could have discovered that she breezed one furlong in :10 1/5

prior to the Fasig-Tipton Calder sale, but that would have been expected

considering she sold for $1 million.

All of the other fillies in the Adirondack had run faster, including PASSION

(Came Home), who sped :45 2/5 en route to a 7 1/2-length romp in her debut on

Polytrack at Arlington Park, SKY MOM (Maria's Mon), who went :44 and change a

couple of times on Polytrack at Keeneland, and YONAGUCCI (Yonaguska), who went

:45 3/5 on a sealed, sloppy track at Calder,

which is not known for producing fast times.

For me, the question is whether the results would have been different if

Phantom Income, the co-favorite, had been able to put early pressure on the

winner. I think they would have been.

More Happy got her picture taken, but I thought A TO THE CROFT (Menifee), who

finished second, ran a more impressive race. The Kenny McPeek trainee, who was

also making her second start, got slammed and nearly knocked down by Passion out

of the gate. She moved up full of run while under a hold along the inside, then

waited patiently before working her way to the outside on the turn. At this

point, she made a quick, four-wide move to sweep past several of her rivals,

then turned for home on the far outside before closing determinedly in the

stretch. A to the Croft galloped out with her ears pricked in front of the field

and McPeek was understandably pleased.

"Going a mile, this group wouldn't have seen my horse," McPeek said. "She ran

out of racetrack. She's a nice filly and a classy one as well. She will

definitely like going longer."

Passion, trained by Todd Pletcher, had some traffic issues on the turn, then

closed well from between foes late to garner a black-type placing. HONEST TO

BETSY (Yonaguska) rallied into contention in the lane before finishing a

one-paced fourth, while stakes winner Yonagucci posed a threat near the

quarter-pole before diminishing to fifth. BSHARPSONATA (Pulpit) and Sky Mom

chased More Happy in the early going before checking in sixth and seventh,

respectively. Schuylerville S. (G3) runner-up I PROMISE (Hook and Ladder) broke

slowly and was never a factor.

In the next edition, I'll try to point out some other interesting performers

in this division, and possibly take a peek at the big Labor Day weekend.