Appealing Zophie takes Spinaway

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Utilizing her brilliant speed and an inside post position to her advantage, Appealing Zophie blew away her seven rivals in Sunday's $250,000 , rolling to a 5 1-4-length, gate-to-wire victory in the Grade 1 race for juvenile fillies.

Cotton Blossom, the Schuylerville winner, wore down X Star by a head for second. Post Invader finished fourth followed by Cool the Economy, Pro Pink, Ruby Crown and My Favorite.

Appealing Zophie, a daughter of Successful Appeal trained by Scott Blasi and owned by Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, bounced back from a second-place finish in the Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies on Aug. 6. That came 3 1-2 months after she won her debut by 10 1-2 lengths at Keeneland.

Sunday, Appealing Zophie broke on top under Shaun Bridgmohan and carved out fractions of 22.38 seconds, 45.74, 1:10.48 and covered the seven furlongs in 1:23.79 over a main track labeled good. She retuned $11.60 as the third choice.

"I was amazed that as fast as she was going she had her ears up down the backside idling," Bridgmohan said. "I knew once they were coming she'd get back into it and do some running and when I asked her at the top of the stretch to go on about her business she did."

Blasi said Appealing Zophie's loss at Mountaineer was a combination of her running into a nice filly in Change Up and Blasi not having his filly tight enough.

"That was a nice filly at Mountaineer that beat her, but I don't think she was quite herself that day and I think she's come back and trained very impressively," said Blasi, who will point Appealing Zophie to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs.

Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Cotton Blossom, and Larry Jones, the trainer of X Star, both lamented the fact that Saratoga's main track was favoring speed on Sunday and that no one was able to run with Appealing Zophie.

"Johnny [Velazquez] said she didn't get a hold of the track very well especially the first part of it and I think that kind of compromised her position early in the race," Pletcher said. "Obviously, the track's pretty speed favoring today. I thought she was pretty courageous to keep coming at them; she finished up well. I look forward to stretching her out."

* The pick-six was hit on Sunday, returning $111,437 for a $2 ticket. There was a carryover $335,280 entering the card an additional $1,187,100 was wagered into the pool.