Queen of the Creek wires Riskaverse; Lisa’s Booby Trap last

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Tom Proctor, the trainer of Riskaverse Stakes winner Queen of the Creek, summed it up best when talking about the last-place finisher in the race, Lisa’s Booby Trap.

“There’s no fairy tales in the horse business,” Proctor said. “It just don’t work that way.”

With a large gathering of media - including a crew from Dateline NBC - chronicling her throughout the day, Lisa’s Booby Trap wilted under the bright lights, finishing last, 16 3/4 lengths behind gate-to-wire winner Queen of the Creek in the $70,000 Riskaverse Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at steamy Saratoga on Thursday.

It was the first loss suffered by Lisa’s Booby Trap after she won her first four starts - all on dirt - by a combined 42 3/4 lengths. Owner/trainer Tim Snyder put her on the turf, believing it would be easier for her. That simply wasn’t the case for Lisa’s Booby Trap, who was sent off as a ridiculous even-money favorite.

“I was trying to get a line on her by trying her on the grass,” Snyder said. “This is no big deal. It was a great experience for her. You’ve got to be on both sides. A lot of people are prepared for the win, and not prepared to be disappointed. I was prepared to be disappointed.”

Sitting in fourth position early under Kent Desormeaux, Lisa’s Booby Trap never gained contention, backing up approaching the quarter pole and ending up last of 10.

“It was over early,” Desormeaux said. “I was under stress to keep up passing the half-mile pole. She started drifting pretty good. After that, I couldn’t keep up with the flight that went past me at the three-eighths pole. I could hear her grunting, she wasn’t getting air normally, she wasn’t breathing. When her feet would hit the ground, she would [grunt]. She just was never comfortable. She didn’t extend at all. Not her day.”

It was Queen of the Creek’s day. Taking control about a sixteenth of a mile into the race under Julien Leparoux, Queen of the Creek raced to an uncontested lead through fractions of 23.98 seconds, 46.76, 1:10.14 and she covered the mile in 1:33.94. She returned $10.40 to win. Ultimate Class, who had raced second throughout, was 3 1/2 lengths behind at the wire, with Kittylicious another 4 1/4 lengths back in third.

The final time was 1.12 seconds faster than the other division of the Riskaverse, won by Awesome Maria ($4.70) by one-half length over the Proctor-trained Snow Top Mountain.

Queen of the Creek won the Riskaverse using the same front-running tactics she used to win a second-level allowance race here on July 26. That came after two ill-fated attempts at rating her in stakes races at Arlington and Churchill Downs.

“This filly’s got a lot of ability. We got to kind of quit trying to rate her,” said Proctor, who trains Queen of the Creek for Tim Turney and Nathan Tinkler. “The other day she ran good, and those were 4-year-olds chasing her. I said the next time I run her, those are going to be 3-year-olds chasing her.”