Crimson Advocate makes it an England-bound double for trainer Weaver
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - It will be off to Merry Ole’ England next month for trainer George Weaver, who completed a sweep of Saturday’s two Royal Ascot qualifying races at Gulfstream Park by sending out Crimson Advocate to register an impressive, gate-to-wire, 3 1/2-length tally over 4-5 favorite Ocean Mermaid in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile Fillies.
Two hours earlier, Weaver saddled No Nay Mets to a similarly easy victory in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile. Both races gave the winners an automatic berth in one of the six 2-year-old races, plus a $25,000 travel stipend, in the upcoming Royal Ascot meet.
Crimson Advocate finished third making her debut three weeks ago at Keeneland, going 4 1/2 furlongs on the main track. She added blinkers for her stakes debut and, like No Nay Mets, broke alertly and controlled all the pace under careful rating by jockey Edwin Gonzalez. Crimson Advocate shook off a mild bid from the favorite entering the stretch before drawing away with complete authority through the final furlong.
Ocean Mermaid raced a bit greenly, lugging in briefly nearing midstretch and, while no match for the winner, was easily second-best. The Myth was best of the others, finishing another 5 3/4 lengths farther back in third.
Crimson Advocate, a daughter of Nyquist, returned $9.40 after covering five furlongs on the firm turf in 56.25 seconds.
“She’s trained nice the whole time since we got her back in March and this was the race I was expecting from her at Keeneland, she surprised me when she wasn’t on the lead although she was a little green that day,” Weaver said. “Her mom had won on synthetic and turf and I knew she had really good speed, so we decided to run her in this race to take a chance to go to Ascot. We made a couple of changes, put blinkers on her, and she was very professional today.”
Weaver will return to Ascot for the second time in June. He sent out then-undefeated Cyclogenisis to finish a non-threatening 14th in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup eight years ago.
“He was a big, heavy horse and wasn’t the right horse for that kind of race,” Weaver recalled. “But I always thought after I went there the first time, it would be nice to go back with someone who had a chance. And now it looks like we’ve got two horses with great early speed who should do well over there. I do need to look at the menu, but I’d prefer to keep them at five-eighths of a mile if I can.”
As for his big day, Weaver said, “you’re always worried about Wesley (Ward), he’s a master of doing this and going to Ascot. You’ve just got to have the right horses and today both of mine broke running, got the advantage right away, then followed through and looked good doing it.”
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