The Personal Ensign (Grade 1)- $500.000 Purse
SAR- For Fillies and Mares Four Years Old and Upward
One Mile and One Eighth on the Dirt
August 23, 2024

The Personal Ensign has been run every year since 2004, but one thing that we have never had in the race was a repeat winner. Starting Over would have the chance to be the first one to accomplish the feat, and she has always taken a liking to SAR, so she seemed to have a good shot. In addition to the 2023 Personal Ensign, she also won the Grade 1 Diana that year, and moving forward into this year, she won the Grade 1 Phipps when that race was held here as a part of the BEL racing festival in June. In total, that’s three wins in four starts at the Spa, all being Grade 1’s. The one race that she did not win was the Diana this time around. Trained by TwinTowersRacing, this six-year-old mare would get the job done in the Personal Ensign, becoming that first repeat winner and increasing her record to being 4-for-5 here at SAR. It’s the second win in the race for TwinTowersRacing, as well, and on the jockey side, S X Bridgmohan wins for the first time. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:47.77, the second fastest in the history of the race. Only the late Madame Butterfly, in 2012, was faster. Let’s take a look at this race now:

(½ Mile- :47.45)- Out front early, it’s Childe Girl, and the Nakamura Stables entry jumps out to an uncontested lead of about two lengths over a group of three that are the closest to her. The horse in the middle of that group, Iolaus Racing’s American Sky, has a half-length advantage over the other two. On the outside here is where we find our eventual winner from TwinTowersRacing, Starting Over. This is nearly identical to how she began last year, stalking the pace, running third, and being two lengths back. Alice Springs runs the rail here in fourth for London Racing. It’s a break of another two lengths to the remaining three horses, which see’s last year’s runner up, Present Tense (Mb Stables) running between horses with a slight advantage over the others. Wavy Girl (Saratoga Stud) is next on the outside and Ignore Tucker (Fractious) runs with them on the rail.

(3/4 Mile- 1:11.65)- We continue down the backstretch and move into the turn with Childe Girl continuing to show the way with no one challenging her just yet. Behind her, Alice Springs is unable to keep up with American Sky and Starting Over as we reach the top of the turn, and it will be early in the turn where Starting Over begins to make her move. She knows how to get it done on this race and is perfect when running on the main track here. She’s now up to second, with a head in front of American Sky and closes in on Childe Girl to now be just a length behind them. American Sky is very much still in the mix right now, and can’t be ruled out, either. Meanwhile, as Alice Springs start back, we don’t see any of the others (Present Tense, Wavy Girl, or Ignore Tucker) making a move as of yet.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- While running in the third lane, Starting Over looks great in the turn, and pulls in front of Childe Girl as we enter the top of the stretch. We’ve seen this before here, and TwinTowersRacing had to love how this race was setting up for him. Childe Girl had run well, but now she had been given the slip, and American Sky was not able to keep up with her, either. They were still running decently, but it would take an unexpected collapse of Starting Over for them to have a chance. So, the concern now would be those that had been running closer to the back, and Ignore Tucker was dialing it up and looking very interesting. She had been gaining ground, but unfortunately for her supporters, she had conceded a lot of it and may have waited a little too late to start making that move. She had pulled ahead of Present Tense, and Wavy Girl had nothing.

(Finish- 1:47.77)- With a furlong to go, Starting Over was still running well, and even though 22/1 longshot Ignore Tucker was a little quicker than her, that one simply had too much ground to make up. Starting Over did what was necessary in the stretch, and that earns her the big win as she takes the Personal Ensign for the second time. The all-out drive by Ignore Tucker was impressive and got her within a half-length, but she will settle for completing the exacta. American Sky was steady to the wire to be third, a length ahead of Childe Girl. Post-time favorite Present Tense is fifth, beating only Wavy Girl and Alice Springs.

About The Winner- Starting Over, trained by TwinTowersRacing and ridden to victory by S X Bridgmohan, is a six-year-old mare by Start The Car and is out of Im Over It. She was bred by Axeman in Florida as a yearling and was acquired by TwinTowersRacing in private sales from Maxmillion Farm for $15.250 back in January 2021. Congratulations to the connections! The win is her eleventh in 34 starts, with ten of those wins being stake victories. She has eight graded wins, and four of them are here at SAR. Her career earnings are now $3,153,360.

Track: Fast
Time: :47²  1:11³  1:35⁴  1:47³

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 7 – 1 Paid 44.00
$1 Trifecta: 7 – 1 – 5 Paid 906.50

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES