The Schuylerville (Grade 3)- $150.000 Purse
SAR- For Fillies Two Years Old
Six Furlongs on the Dirt
July 20, 2018
Early bragging rights for the two year old juvenile fillies goes to Love Struck Baby as she would pick up the win the Grade 3 Schuylerville. The two year old stake races at SAR and DMR are always instrumental in giving us results of horses to talk about, and not just virgin work times. Love Struck Baby, who was among our picks, is certainly impressing, as she is now three-for-three in her career, adding this victory to a win in the Astoria at BEL last month. Her trainer is D J C Racing Stables, who earns his first win in the stake. Regular SAR jockey J R Velazquez can now call himself a Schuylerville winner as well. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:09.64, which would have had her dead heat with 2016 winner, High Precious. This was an entertaining race with a close finish. Let’s take a look!
(1/4 Mile- :23.03)- The quickest out of the gate would be Silk Tree, out of Alydar Stables, and after an early challenge from both Kaikoura and Love Struck Baby, she leads by half a length length after a reasonable early fraction of 23 seconds. Kaikoura, from Smokey Stover, runs second just to her inside. Our eventual winner, Love Struck Baby, ran with them initially, but settles into a stalking position for D J C Racing Stables. Born Rapido is close by in fourth for Oquinn Farm, running in the third lane. In the middle of the pack, we find Make You Blush (Rampage Stable), Queenhood (Mb Stables), and Grayte Check (Estero Farms), and they are 3-4 lengths out of it. Those who started in outside posts were not as sharp early on. Sassy Mamba (Tiratzo), Z Command (Joshua Stables) and Cheetah (Angelos Stable) trailed by about five and half lengths, with another half length to Distorted Express (Jader Stable). Trailing the field would be Short Dance, from Fractious.
(½ Mile- :45.91)- The pace picks up slightly at the front end after half a mile as they round the turn and hit the stretch. The stride of Silk Tree was looking very impressive at this point, and she looked as though she was very capable of wiring the field, though Kaikoura had stayed with her the whole way and was going to maintain that challenge in the stretch. Love Struck Baby continued to stalk, but had not yet gained on the leaders. Make You Blush and Born Rapido were doing a good job keeping pace with the leaders and looked to position themselves for a move. Grayte Check had four lengths to make up, but was looking like a candidate to advance her position as she moved into the fourth lane, and Cheetah moved out to the fifth lane. Queenhood was starting to lose ground, and Z Command had not yet made a push forward. Sassy Mamba, Distorted Express, and Short Dance had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it.
(Finish- 1:09.64)- In the stretch, things got pretty intense. Love Struck Baby made a move to split the two frontrunners, and gradually chipped away at the lead. Behind her, several others were running quite well and getting close. Silk Tree looked as though she may have been tiring in the final moments, but Kaikoura was still trying to hang on. Love Struck Baby ran hard to the wire, but Kaikoura would not give in. When they hit the wire, it looked like this could go either way. After examining the photo, Love Struck Baby would prevail in the photo, getting an impressive win over Kaikoura, who also has nothing to feel bad about. Silk Tree held on enough to be third, prevailing over fourth place Z Command, who made a nice move while along the inside. Grayte Check ran well in her outside lane, and Make You Blush also responded nicely with run. They get fifth and sixth, ahead of dead heat for seventh between Distorted Express and Cheetah. Short Dance was close to them as well. Born Rapido ran much better then her ending line of 10th with seem. Sassy Mamba was next, with Queenhood rounding out the order. A great race here, and plenty of efforts within the field that trainers can be happy with, even if the result was not ideal for some of them.
About The Winner- Love Struck Baby, trained by D J C Racing Stables, and ridden to victory by J R Velazquez, is a two year old filly by Mr Creepy, and is out of Three Hearts. She was bred in New York by D J C Racing Stables as a yearling, and they have been together throughout. Congratulations to the connections! She is now a perfect 3-for-3 in her career, with two stake wins, and one graded win already. Her career earnings are $212.400.
Track: Fast
Time: :23 :454 :573 1:093
$2 Mutuel Prices:
$1 Exacta: 2 – 1 Paid 151.00
$1 Trifecta: 2 – 1 – 4 Paid 1,316.60
Scratched: Gobekli Tepe
— NS
Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES
