The Sands Point (Grade 2)- $200.000 Purse
BEL- For Fillies Three Years Old
One Mile and One Eighth on the Inner Turf
October 16, 2021

There were not any real surprises in the Sands Point, as the two horses that figured to lead the way, Buckingham Palace and Juicy stepped up and did exactly that. Buckingham Palace would come into the race with five wins in nine starts, but was still looking for the graded victory that she could put on her resume. Now, she has it, beating the horse in Juicy that figured to be her biggest challenger even though she unexpectedly went off at odds of about 6/1. Our winner is another talented one in the Smokey Stover fold, giving the trainer his first win in the race, as well as jockey M Franco his first win. The race was run in a time of 1:45.95, slightly slower than recent comparable editions of the stake. Let’s take a look.

(½ Mile- :47.39)- The race sees two horses get off to a good start, and everyone else seem to be content to just let them go over the opening half mile. Problem that they would have is that these first two would be the eventual top two finishers. It’s Juicy with the lead for D J C Racing Stables but Buckingham Palace, from Smokey Stover, wisely not letting her get away as she stalks the pacesetter. We then have a gap of three to a group of three wide horses that sees Millie Vanillie (Threshold) on the rail, Casting Couch Cutie (Arindel) in the middle, and Paris Candy (Glorify Stables) on the outside. It’s another two to Lucky Insist (Rock Creek).

(¾ Mile- 1:10.63)- Down the backstretch, Juicy continues to hold her length lead on Buckingham Palace. Our winner starts to consider making a move early in the turn and positions herself to move along her outside. Is anyone else making a move? Well, no. That three wide group three lengths back of Buckingham Palace are still lined up that way, and Lucky Insist insists on watching them all in front of her as we go along.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- At the front, Juicy is doing a pretty good job of maintaining her pace and holding off Buckingham Palace. Her lead is still about a length, with Buckingham Palace wanting to make that outside run, but she’s only made very minor progress on Juicy up to this point. Casting Couch Cutie and Millie Vanillie have, maybe, gained a length on them, but they need to make more progress than that. Paris Candy is starting to lose touch with them and that’s not good news. Lucky Insist continues to trail.

(Finish- 1:45.95)- The gradual progress of Buckingham Palace would continue in the stretch, and with a furlong to go, they are side by side. After a few more strides, Juicy seems unable to keep up with Buckingham Palace, allowing the winner to pull away by a length. With no else coming, that’s all she would need to secure the victory. Millie Vanillie does better than was expected of her, but she never threatened for a top two spot. She settles for third over the mildly closing Lucky Insist. Casting Couch Cutie and Paris Candy round it out after pulling no shows today.

About the Winner- Buckingham Palace, trained by Smokey Stover and ridden to victory by M Franco, is a three year old filly by State Police and is out of Jinxed Queen. You’ve read about them many times in the SRF, too. She was bred in New York as a third quarter two year old by Smokey Stover, the only trainer for which she has ever known. Congratulations to the connections! The win is her sixth in ten starts, her second stake win and first graded win. Her career earnings are now $450.600.

Track: Firm
Time: :47¹  1:10³  1:34   1:45⁴

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 3 – 5 Paid 10.80
$1 Trifecta: 3 – 5 – 2 Paid 119.00

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES