Emphatic beats back Summer Starlet to win Alcibiades

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Colonial Downs-to-Monmouth Park route is a road less traveled by Breeders’ Cup quality horses. But you can say – emphatically – that the 2-year-old filly Emphatic is a horse of Breeders’ Cup quality.

Emphatic won her sprint debut at Colonial, the two-turn Sorority at Monmouth second out, and on Friday turned back odds-on favorite Summer Starlet, smashing winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway last out, and won the Grade 1, $557,450 Alcibiades Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths on Friday at Keeneland.

Emphatic – shipped back and from Kentucky to Virginia, then from Kentucky to New Jersey – has ended her travels for now. Trainer Brendan Walsh runs a string at Keeneland, Emphatic has been training here, and she will not be leaving the grounds as she prepares for an Oct. 30 engagement in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

With her victory in the Alcibiades, Emphatic earned a fees-paid berth to the Juvenile Fillies through the Breeders' Cup Challenge program.

Emphatic broke sharply from the fence, made the lead in the first few strides under Tyler Gaffalione, and never looked back. Her margin of victory shrank from blowout wins her first two starts – but then Summer Starlet was widely rated the best juvenile filly in the land coming into the Alcibiades.

“Honestly, she really helped me out. She broke so alertly, she really put herself in the game, and we were kind of able to dictate things from there,” Gaffalione said. “As soon as we got up the backside, her ears came up and she was just traveling so well. She just gave me a ton of confidence.”

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Be confident that the first two home were much the best in the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades, run around two turns with the same short-stretch configuration both Emphatic and Summer Starlet will encounter in four weeks. More than 17 lengths separated Summer Starlet and third-place finisher Oh She Said Yes. Ever Forward finished fourth, 2-1 second choice Forever Carina was fifth, with High Speed Reed and For the Money bringing up the rear.

Forever Carina might have left her race at the starting gate. Jose “Baldo” Hernandez, assistant to trainer Chad Brown, said Forever Carina has not been a bad gate horse, but she was Friday, declining to load and delaying the start several minutes.

That was far from the race’s highest drama.

Flavien Prat, riding Summer Starlet for the first time, positioned his mount in an ideal spot just outside and behind Emphatic, who set a fairly slow pace, 24.45 and 48.74. Summer Starlet in fact appeared to be inching closer to Emphatic going to the half-mile pole when she suddenly lost her action, falling back at least a length, for an instant looking like she might drop out of the race.

“Someone clipped my heels,” said Prat, who immediately looked back over his right shoulder when Summer Starlet went off stride. “I completely lost my hind [end] and it seems like someone just ran into me.”

The head-on replay shows Oh She Said Yes coming between Summer Starlet and Ever Forward, who was racing very wide, and making contact with Summer Starlet, whose right hind leg goes flying outward.

Summer Starlet quickly got back on track, resuming her pursuit of Emphatic, but the incident was costly.

“You just have to regroup and get back in the rhythm,” Prat said. “It was still a very good race.”

Summer Starlet gained slightly to the three-sixteenths marker, but Emphatic always was holding her at bay, stopping the timer in 1:43.90 over a fast track. Emphatic, third choice, paid $8.78 to win.

A $250,000 yearling who campaigns for Antony Beck’s Gainesway Stable and Andrew Rosen, Emphatic is a daughter of Nyquist and the Tiznow mare Convinced. Walsh said the filly showed ability from the time she arrived at the racetrack but required a caring touch to develop.

“She’s been a natural from Day One, and it’s a tribute to my team because she went the right way mentally,” Walsh said. “She could have went the other way. She was just a little highly strung when she came to us at first, and sometimes you lose those horses, especially fillies. But it seemed with her, the more racing she’s got, the better she’s got, which is always a very good sign.”

Steve Asmussen, who trains Summer Starlet, took a good, long look at the filly after Prat jumped off, and was greatly relieved to see nothing seriously amiss. Summer Starlet, he said, had taken a knock at the center of a hind cannon bone, but there was no blood and no sign of any significant injury.

“The only thing I’m happy about is [Prat] said she felt great coming back,” Asmussen said. “The winner ran a great race, obviously worthy of a Grade 1, and obviously I would love to not get run up from behind when we run her back.”

The Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies comes up four weeks from today. The rematch is on.

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