Valedictory Stakes (Grade 3)- $125.000 Purse
WO- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Half on the Dirt
December 10, 2017

Heading into the 7th running of the Valedictory Stakes, no one had a strong resume then Dogs Infowarrior, but whether or not he was the strongest in this field today was still up for debate. There was surprise, then, when he bolted out to the commanding five length lead. Behind hin, the rest of the field were content to let him go. It would be the lead horse of that group, Diamond Of The Sea, that would end up prevailing in this race, in what was his stake debut. The winning trainer is D J C Racing Stables, who wins the race for the second time in his career. Back in 2012, the trainer won it Fab Four. Aboard the winner was L Contreras, who also wins the race for the second time, and he was also the rider for Fab Four five years ago. Congratulations to them! The time of this victory was 2:29.46, placing it fourth in the stake’s history. Let’s take a look at it!

(½ Mile- :50.51)- The story of the race begins immediately as Dogs Infowarrior breaks sharply for trainer John Henry, and jumps out to the early advantage. As they rounded the first time, it looked like Diamond Of The Sea, from D J C Racing Stables wanted to be at the front as well, but once L Contreras realized that there was a gap to the rest of the field, he backed Diamond Of The Sea from off from that challenge. While this was a big lead on the track, the fraction certainly does not seem unreasonable. Cut The General (Mb Stables) and Door Code (Mo Mentum Farm) battle for third about seven lengths from the lead, and Historiography (Barcelona Farms) is another half length back.

(3/4 Mile- 1:14.99)- Not much going on as they round the second turn. It’s still Dogs Infowarrior, running a time that actually seems reasonable, given the advantage he had. Diamond Of The Sea remained five out. Briefly, Cut The General looked like he might challenge Diamond Of The Sea for second, but soon called it off. Historiography moves up to fourth, and now its Door Code at the rear.

(2.5F To Go)- As the field moves down the backstretch, Dogs Infowarrior still seems to be running fine on the front end, but his lead starts to diminish. Diamond Of The Sea begins to steadily claw into the lead midway through the backstretch, and by the time they are midway through the turn, he was right on his tail, within a length. Also moving forward in this steady manner was Historiography, who ran well while tucked in on the rail to slice the deficit on the backstretch as well. By the time Diamond Of The Sea cut the lead to a length, Historiography was just two lengths behind him, which meant he gained about a length on that one the eventual winner as well during this portion of the race. Door Code and Cut The General slightly gained, but were being left behind by the others, so it did not look good for those two.

(Finish- 2:29.46)- Moving around the turn, and into the stretch, Diamond Of The Sea puts away the pace-setting Dogs Infowarrior without much difficultly. He does while running the outside, and as this was happening Historiography was charging to the front. It almost appeared as though L Contreras may have thought the race was won for a split second after passing Dogs Infowarrior. Historiography was allowed to draw even with him in the stretch, but once he did, Diamond Of The Sea responded to the challenge and these two duked it out to the wire. In the end, in a tight photo, Diamond Of The Sea nips Historiography, a one-time stablemate, for the win. Finishing third was Door Code, who ran exceptionally well along the rail in the late moments. He got a lot closer then could have been expected, and the effort earns a third place check. Cut The General, who was actually the post time favorite, didn’t show much, but was not awful. As for Dogs Infowarrior, eventually they all got by.

About The Winner: Diamond Of The Sea, trained by D J C Racing Stables and ridden by L Contreras, is a three year old gelding by Dike, and out of Fluoro. He was bred in California by Barcelona Farms as a yearling, and was acquired by D J C Racing Stables via a $6.500 claim as recently as this August. Congratulations to the connections. The win is his 4th in thirteen career races, and it is his first stake win of any type. His career earnings are now $143.340.

Track: Fast
Time: :50²  1:14⁴  2:04¹  2:29²

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 5 – 1 Paid 111.90
$1 Trifecta: 5 – 1 – 4 Paid 669.80

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES