Dance to the Music lone shipper in family affair Governor's Cup
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An interloper from Southern California may disrupt what may otherwise be a family affair in Saturday’s $75,000 Governor’s Cup Stakes for fillies and mares at Cal-Expo in Sacramento, Calif.
Dance to the Music, winner of the Grade 3 Desert Stormer Stakes for fillies and mares at Santa Anita in March, is the lone shipper in a field of seven for the Governor’s Cup Stakes at six furlongs.
Dance to the Music may need a career-best performance to beat the Northern California-based stakes winners Chancery Way or Sadie Bluegrass.
Chancery Way, who will start from the rail, is trained by Jamey Thomas. His mother, Ruby, trains Sadie Bluegrass.
Of the two, the advantage may be with Sadie Bluegrass, who runs as a stalker and will have an early target in Chancery Way, who drew the rail.
“She’s got to outrun Chancery Way, I can tell you that,” Ruby Thomas said of Sadie Bluegrass. “I’m thinking she’s going to go right on by her.”
Sadie Bluegrass won the Dream of Summer Stakes for California-bred fillies and mares at five furlongs on turf on June 11 at Golden Gate Fields, a race in which she caught pacesetter Chancery Way in the stretch. Chancery Way faded to finish third, beaten 1 3/4 lengths.
At the time, Sadie Bluegrass was trained by Jonathan Wong, who has since been suspended for a medication violation. Ruby Thomas recently took control of many of Wong’s runners.
Chancery Way, who won the Bear Fan Stakes for statebred fillies and mares at six furlongs at Golden Gate Fields in 2022, will set the pace in the Governor’s Cup.
“We’ve gotta go,” Jamey Thomas said of race tactics. “We’ve got no choice to go from the rail.”
Jamey Thomas said he “tried to coax” his mother into not entering Sadie Bluegrass. He expressed confidence that Chancery Way can be a factor through six furlongs.
“Hopefully, she’s doing good enough to beat Sadie this time,” he said.
Dance to the Music followed her win in the Desert Stormer Stakes with a fourth-place finish by 4 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Great Lady M. Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs for fillies and mares on July 4 at Los Alamitos. Dance to the Music was wide for much of the race and was as close as third for the first half-mile.
“It was a good race for her because she wasn’t close to the lead early, but stayed to the task and finished decently,” trainer Mark Glatt said.
Glatt said Dance to the Music is likely to be sold at auction in Kentucky in November and that a second stakes win would boost the value of a filly who was second in the Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante in 2021.
“She’s Grade 1-placed and if she can add to her résumé that would be the plan,” Glatt said.
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