Post time favorite Goosebumps ( Smokey Stover ) was keen to sit in the hole behind the front runner Snakie Pleasure ( Maxmillion Farm ) until the mid point down the backstretch. Then with the arrival of Get Controlled ( Team 7 Illusions ) into the far turn snatching the lead away, Jockey Cancel would get down on his mount early to hustle her along to stay in the hunt.
- The Top Flight Handicap Purse $200.000
- Aqueduct Racetrack, Four fillies Four years old and upward
- Mile and an eighth in the dirt
- Saturday April 13th, 2019
Looking like she was going to draw quickly by on the leader and step away, Get Controlled would find herself just perking up the ears of the eventual winner. The two would find themselves in a head to head battle at the top of the lane, with Snakie Pleasure trying to stay game between the pair. Oyster Puff ( Mb Stables ) had closed ground on the outside of this trio, just a length shy, while Style Cant Spoil ( Night Rider Stables ) was poised two and a half lengths shy.
Down to a furlong to run with opening fractions of 47.71, 1:11.27, 1:35.47, and Goosebumps now had gained a half length advantage over Get Controlled, with a bound and determined Oyster Puff closing up ground. Snakie Pleasure seemed to need all she could muster to keep Style Cant Spoil from taking the final payout spot.
Crossing the wire in a final time of 1:48.06 and setting a new best time for the mile and an eighth distance of this event, Goosebumps would win her first ever stakes title of her career, after numerous times of placing in the money in other events. The win for Smokey Stover would also put a stop to Mb Stables winning his fourth straight Top Flight title, capturing it in 2015, 16 and 18 ( it was absent in 2017 ).
Runner-ups would be a photo finish between both Get Controlled and Oyster Puff, both determined to complete the exacta. Get Controlled almost returned all the funds his trainer use to claim the bay filly at FG. This has been only her third stakes try. As for Oyster Puff, this has been her sixteenth appearance in a stakes event of some level, with just the Ladies Handicap as a victory.
While she tried her best to stay game down the lane, Snakie Pleasure would have to bow out for the final purse money to Style Cant Spoil in the end. If the Maxmillion Farm’s four year old can find someway to extend past the seven eights distance, she probably would find herself in bigger events. As for Style Cant Spoil, she already has two stakes victories to her credit, and I think she just needs a little more distance to show what she is made of late. Be interesting to see how she would handle a mile and a half.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES
