Defeating two subsequent stakes winners in her 3-year-old debut, Red Ruby briefly looked like a Kentucky Oaks filly at Oaklawn Park. Then, something happened and she was not.
Three months since winning the $150,000 Martha Washington in the slop, Red Ruby encountered wet conditions again Friday at Pimlico Race Course and won the Grade 2 $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan.
With tactics similar to Kentucky Derby winner Justify on a sloppy Churchill Downs track May 5, Red Ruby shadowed Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Coach Rocks down the backstretch and surged ahead on the final turn. With Paco Lopez aboard for the first time, the Kellyn Gorder trainee pranced home by 4 3/4 lengths with nine furlongs in 1:50.17 over a sloppy (sealed) track.
Coach Rocks, whose owners include former basketball coach Rick Pitino, placed second and Indy Union third.
Red Ruby made her first start since placing fourth in Oaklawn's Grade 3 Honeybee March 10. Her Martha Washington rivals included Honeybee winner Cosmic Burst and Oaklawn's Grade 3 Fantasy winner Sassy Sienna.
"We knew she liked the off going," said Gorder. "In the Honeybee, she got really hot in the post parade, so I trained her this morning. That's just about the only thing I did different. Normally, I don't do that. It depends on the horse. ... I think that might have helped her."
Red Ruby missed the April 13 Fantasy and May 4 Kentucky Oaks after what Gorder called "a little accident in the shed row" at Oaklawn. Red Ruby, he said, dragged her hot walker into the middle of the barn, ran into a metal ladder and received 13 stitches."
"We got really, really lucky. They were all superficial," Gorder said. "But she sat in the stall for 16 days while those things healed."
Gorder said he is pointing Red Ruby, a Tiznow filly produced by the Rubiano mare Caroni, to Saratoga's Grade 1 Alabama in August. Oaklawn-raced Elate, trained by Bill Mott, won the mile-and-quarter Alabama last year.
Red Ruby has earned $283,000 in five starts (three wins) for owners Sandra Sexton, Brandi Nicholson and Steven Nicholsons. Along with Staton Flurry of Hot Springs, the Nicholsons are co-owners of unbeaten Exclamation Point, a 3-year-old half-brother to juvenile champion and Arkansas Derby winner Classic Empire who is training under Brad Cox for his upcoming stakes debut.
Pimlico Special: Under sloppy conditions Friday that sire Curlin might have relished, Irish War Cry became a winner for the first time in more than a year.
The 4-year-old colt breezed by 4 1/2 lengths in the Grade 3 $300,000 Pimlico Special on Preakness Eve in Baltimore. Runner-up in last year's Belmont Stakes, Irish War Cry scored his first victory since the 2017 Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct for trainer Graham Motion.
"I just wanted to get him back on track, and I feel like today we did that," Motion said. "It was important to me. This horse shows so much in the morning, and it's so frustrating to see him run disappointingly in the afternoons."
With Jose Ortiz aboard, Irish War Cry found himself on the lead after breaking well from post one. He widened the margin in the stretch and finished a mile and three sixteenths in 1:55.51 on a sloppy (sealed) track, paying $10, $5 and $4.20. He emulated Curlin's 2007 Preakness victory at the same distance and on a wet surface like his sire experienced in winning the '07 Breeders' Cup Classic at Monmouth Park.
One Liner, Oaklawn's Grade 3 2017 Southwest winner, and Untrapped, an Oaklawn-raced colt owned by Mike Langford of Jonesboro, dead-heated for second. Hedge Fund, Oaklawn's Essex Handicap winner in March, placed sixth.
Sports on 05/20/2018