Abaco narrowly prevails in Ballston Spa
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Abaco kept her cool before the Grade 2 Ballston Spa at Saratoga on Saturday, jockey Jose Ortiz Jr. kept his cool during the $250,000 race, and the result was a rallying neck score over Strathnaver in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares.
While many of the fillies in the six-horse field were hot and lathered up during the Ballston Spa warm-up, Abaco was not. She was also professional during the race, content to lope along in last position early, waiting for Ortiz to ask her to pick up the tempo.
Ortiz gave the signal on the far turn and steered her out wide for racing room. Fanned widest of all into the stretch, Abaco was up to take the lead outside Strathnaver in the final sixteenth.
"She does very well up here," trainer Shug McGaughey said of Abaco, a 6-year-old daughter of Giant's Causeway. "I'm not sure if she was up here with me as a 2-year-old but she has always done well here. The first year she was here, she lived in one of those pony stalls."
Ortiz said he wasn't concerned about going wide on the far turn because he had saved ground up until that point.
"I thought I had saved enough ground on the first turn and I didn't want to get stopped," he said. "When it is time to go, you have to go."
Night Song, the longest shot in the field at 36-1, set a comfortable pace of 23.95 and 48.99 seconds while being stalked by Centre Court and 3-5 favorite Filimbi, who was three wide. Nellie Cashman saved ground along the rail in fourth.
Night Song held a short lead through six furlongs in 1:13.33 but the field was tightening up as they neared the stretch. Strathnaver, who lagged back second-to-last early, split horses entering the stretch, took a brief lead outside Centre Court in midstretch, dug in when challenged by Abaco, but could not last. Nellie Cashman continued willingly for third two lengths behind Strathnaver.
Filimbi, a winner of two of three starts since being sent to trainer Bill Mott from France by Juddmonte Farms, lodged a mild bid into the stretch while three wide and then tired to finish last, beaten 6 1/2 lengths.
Abaco, owned and bred by the Phipps Stable, completed the distance in 1:42.64 and paid $10.60 to win as the second favorite. She has now won 6 of 24 starts and earned $660,108.
She is 2 for 4 at Saratoga. She won a maiden race here in 2012.