The Fantasy (KYO) (Grade 3)- $600.000 Purse
OP- For Fillies Three Years Old
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Dirt
April 2, 2022

There would be no issues with rain at OP, and our field of seven were set to battle not only for the nice purse, but for the 100 KYO points that were available to the winner. That winner would be a filly named The Intouchables that nearly raced last week in the FG Oaks, but trainer Smokey Stover would opt to scratch the horse and run for the bigger purse here. It would be the right decision, as The Intouchable wins her third straight race, but none have been as big as this. Congratulations to Smokey Stover on his second win in The Fantasy, and also becoming the first trainer to win this race more than once, and he win gives him three of the top five on the KYO leaderboard. Jockey A Cedillo wins the race for the first time, and it was run in a time of 1:41.93. Let’s take a look!

(1/4 Mile- :23.81)- We start things off here with three horses vying for the early lead and they run three wide around the opening the turn. Last Call, from YME Stable, has a head in front and push that out to being a half length at the top of the backstretch. She ran between horses, and had Maxmillion Farm’s Hollywood Babe on her inside and Smokey Stover’s Exactly to her outside. The other four broke evenly right behind them, though soon in the turn, Arindel’s Curlina had visions of a four wide move before backing off from that eventually. Our eventual winner, Smokey Stover’s The Intouchables, was next while on the rail, and in a stalking position right behind Hollywood Babe. Theres No Doubt (Angelos Stable) was within a length to her outside, and at the back was Sensation (Mb Stables), but even she was within four lengths of the front.

(½ Mile- :47.26)- Early in the backstretch portion, it looked like Last Call was getting ready to pull away from those that she was running with, but that would not really materialize. In fact, at the top of the turn, Exactly would nearly pull level with her again. Hollywood Babe could not say the same, as she would lose a length. As that was going on, The Intouchables moved off of the rail in hopes of not being hindered by Hollywood Babe if she fell back even more. Running three wide here with Curlina, who continued to have a steady run while taking the long way around the race track. Theres No Doubt hung with them as well, but Sensation was dropping further back.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- At the front, Last Call and Exactly continued to battle with one another, but Exactly would prevail here and lead by half a length into the stretch. Over the second half of the turn, it was impressive to watch the impeccable sychronized movements of The Intouchables, Theres No Doubt, and Curlina as they all seemed to read one another’s mind and move down lanes to accommodate one another. The Intouchables had a little more speed than they other two, however. Meanwhile on the rail, Hollywood Babe was trying to hang in here but was being caught by those three to her outside. Further back, all Sensation could do was watch.

(Finish- 1:41.93)- With a nice clear lane now in front of her, there would be nothing standing in the way of The Intouchables. She would capture the lead from her stablemate, and pull away for an impressive looking win, leaving Smokey to hope for the 1-2 finish. Theres No Doubt would prevent that with a late surge, and Exactly gets the third position. Fourth is a dead heat between Last Call and Curlina, with Hollywood Babe nearly making that a three-way. Sensation did nothing all day.

About The Winner- The Intouchables, trained by Smokey Stover and ridden to victory by A Cedillo, is a three year old filly by Good Authority and is out of Windian. She was bred in New York by Smokey Stover as a first quarter two year old and they have been together throughout. Congratulations to the connections! The win is her sixth in nine starts, her fourth stake win and second graded win. Her career earnings are now $606.180.

Track: Fast
Time: :23⁴  :47¹  1:10⁴  1:41⁴

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 2 – 4 Paid 38.90
$1 Trifecta: 2 – 4 – 7 Paid 43.70

Scratched: Present Tense(L)

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES