Fast-finishing Uni proves best in First Lady

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Rushing Fall finally lost at Keeneland, but trainer Chad Brown still won the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes as Uni rumbled home under Joel Rosario to post a brilliant 2 1/2-length victory.

Eleventh of 13 during the early and middle stages as Ms Bad Behavior flew through an intemperate half-mile in 45.40 seconds, Uni, a petite chestnut with a wicked turn of foot, began moving up around the far turn, launched herself fully into the fray at the quarter pole, and buzzed past Juliet Foxtrot in the final furlong to win going away.

“She covers a lot of ground when she gets going,” said Rosario.

Uni ran one mile in 1:32.87, faster than any horse ever has covered the distance in a Keeneland turf race, bettering Perfect Soul’s 1:33.54 from April 2004. The course record came about because of the strong pace and Uni’s tremendous performance, but also because the drought-parched Keeneland grass, while watered, was explosively quick Saturday.

Juliet Foxtrot, who hung in gamely after bidding into the hot tempo, turned in a strong performance to finish a clear second, no match for the winner but 1 1/4-lengths clear of third-place Vasilika, who rallied from 10th.

Rushing Fall, who had won four previous starts at Keeneland and was the 13-10 favorite under Javier Castellano for Brown and eFive Racing Thoroughbreds, could only finish fourth, a head in front of Hanalei Moon, after pulling a favorable stalking trip. Rushing Fall swept into contention between the three-furlong and quarter poles but came up empty when Castellano asked her to quicken.

“She was traveling real good until then,” Castellano said.

Bob Edwards, eFive’s principal, said he’d confer with Brown about immediate plans but said Rushing Fall would race again in 2020, though the filly is unlikely to start again this year.

And who knows where Uni might show up next. She’s by More than Ready but is an English-bred daughter of the Dansili mare, Unaided, and isn’t nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, It would cost her owners – Michael Dubb, Head of Plains Partners LLC, Robert LaPenta, and Bethlehem Stables – $100,000 to supplement her to the BC Mile. The First Lady is a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series event with the winner granted a berth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Uni, a 5-year-old, also is entered in a November breeding-stock auction.

Lightly raced, Uni won for the ninth time in 17 starts and though she captured the Grade 1 Matriarch late last year with a breathtaking move, this probably was her best race.

“I think she’s one of the best milers in North America,” said assistant trainer Whit Beckman, who deputized here Saturday with Brown staying in New York for stakes at Belmont,

That looked true Saturday. Ms Bad Behavior rocketed out of the gate and went her first quarter in 22.71 with Conquest Hardcandy hot on her heels. Florent Geroux tucked Juliet Foxtrot along the rail in fifth but began moving in tandem with Mitchell Road before the half-mile to get up on the leader’s back, and while Mitchell Road flattened out, finishing eighth, Juliet Foxtrot opened up and briefly loomed a winner before Uni clipped her.

“I wish she might have been able to wait a little longer, but Florent did a good job getting her to settle,” said trainer Brad Cox, who named the Matriarch as a next-start goal for this Juddmonte Farms homebred.

Uni got a late start to this season, debuting June 29 with an easy win over overmatched restricted stakes foes, but as the 9-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga, she finished strongly enough but was beaten home by victorious Got Stormy and runner-up Raging Bull. That day, Uni didn’t find her best stride until it was too late, but in the First Lady she picked up beautifully around the far turn and this race was all but over at the eighth pole.