Fully Subscribed dominates Personal Engisn for first Grade 1 win
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. − Chad Brown always believed Fully Subscribed was a Grade 1-caliber filly and now he can call Fully Subscribed a Grade 1 winner.
The recipient of a picture-perfect ride from Flavien Prat, Fully Subscribed tipped out three-wide leaving the quarter pole and overpowered her main foe, Scottish Lassie, in upper stretch and galloped home to a 9 3/4-length victory in the $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga. Scottish Lassie, despite tiring in the final sixteenth, held second by a half-length over Nerazurri.
Snowyte, who set the pace under Junio Alvarado, finished fourth followed by Margie’s Intention and Speed Shopper.
The top two finishers were the same as in the Grade 2 Shuvee here five weeks ago only Fully Subscribed was more emphatic on Saturday.
“It’s very gratifying, she’s always trained super, like a Grade 1-quality filly,” said Brown, who trains Fully Subscribed for Seth Klarman’s Klaravich Stables. “She came up a little short to start the season, but she kept improving slowly and steadily. She’s a high-quality race mare and I’m so happy before a packed crowd here today at Saratoga she got to show her stuff and show what she can really do.”
Prat said during the preliminaries he felt Fully Subscribed was going to give a better performance than the Shuvee. Prat used Fully Subscribed out of the gate to get position, was content to sit third while Snowyte made the lead and then gradually made her way by the top of the lane.
“She was behaving better than last time,” Prat said. “She was relaxed and she was able to jump well and I was able to use her and she’s very push-button. From there, it made my job easy. I was able to save ground all the way around. I felt very confident when we hit the three-eighths pole when I tipped her out and she really gave me a good run.”
Fully Subscribed, a 4-year-old daughter of Tiz the Law, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.23 and returned $3.86 as the favorite. She improved her record 5-3-1 from nine starts and pushed her career earnings to $1,038,800.
In her two previous Grade 1 tries, Fully Subscribed was beaten one length by Shred the Gnar in the La Troienne at Churchill Downs in May and 12 3-4 lengths by Nitrogen in the Ogden Phills here in June.
The Personal Ensign victory earned Fully Subscribed a fees-paid berth into the Breeders’ Cup Distaff on Oct. 31 at Keeneland. That is where Nitrogen is likely to run.
“Well, I don’t want to start throwing around the word Nitrogen,” Brown said. “The last time [Fully Subscribed] faced her she got drowned by her, but outside of that race with her, she’s run really well. Look, it’s a long campaign, all of the horses have to stay healthy and in form, Fully Subscribed and Nitrogen included. We’ll see if everybody is still in good form and healthy and such by the time we get into the fall, but I certainly have a filly on my hands that continues to improve.”
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