Geroux collects third stakes win of day on I'm Already Sexy in Modesty
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ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. -- I’m Already Sexy won the Modesty Handicap by a neck over Gulsary on Saturday. Of course she did. Florent Geroux rode her.
In 2011, Geroux rode 27 winners during the Arlington meet, his strike rate a paltry 7 percent. But season by season, Geroux, a French import, has improved. This summer at Arlington, he is battling James Graham for leading rider, and during the best meet of his career, Geroux had the best day of his career Saturday, winning three of the four Grade 3 turf stakes on the Arlington program.
Before he guided I’m Already Sexy through a perfect pressing trip in the Grade 3, $200,000 Modesty, Geroux booted home The Pizza Man in the Stars and Stripes and Divine Oath in the American Derby. He won four of the 12 races here Saturday.
I’m Already Sexy, like Geroux, excels at Arlington. The 4-year-old filly, winner of the Grade 3 Pucker Up on this course last season, ran her Arlington turf record to 4 for 4 with her Saturday tally. Racing on Lasix for the first time, she settled into an ideal position tracking the slow pace of surprise leader I O Ireland, the half-mile passing in a tepid 50.22 seconds.
Geroux patiently waited and waited, seeking to preserve as much energy as possible, his mount making her first start beyond 1 1/8 miles. He finally asked for the filly’s best in midstretch and the lead she opened before the final half-furlong was just enough to preserve victory over a bevy of closers. Behind runner-up Gulsary it was just a nose back to Street of Gold, with Every Way another neck behind in fourth. White Rose, the mild favorite who was stuck in post 14, never picked up her feet and checked in 13th.
I’m Already Sexy, a daughter of Ready’s Image owned by Hit the Board Stables, paid $10.80 as the second choice, and was timed in 1:57.56 for 1 3/16 miles on firm turf.
Wayne Catalano trains I’m Already Sexy, and Catalano, a local power, has backed Geroux at Arlington at least to some extent since 2010. Geroux, 27, started riding in the United States in 2008. He was taken under the wing of French expatriate trainer Patrick Biancone, but struggled to build his business after settling onto the Chicago circuit.
“The first few years it was slow. I didn’t have the bug, I didn’t speak very good English, and I didn’t know the American style,” said Geroux, who had ridden with success as a French apprentice. Geroux’s career arc already had trended up, but he said wintering this past season at Fair Grounds for the first time, finding acceptance there and winning races for new outfits, gave him a confidence boost that has carried over to the racing this summer. It showed on Saturday.