Go Google Yourself up late to win Bayakoa
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Go Google Yourself caught favorite Whoa Nellie near the wire for a neck win Monday in the Grade 3, $200,000 Bayakoa at Oaklawn Park. It was another 3 3/4 lengths back in third to Cairenn.
The Bayakoa, for fillies and mares, was the first of three stakes on the holiday card. The program also featured the Grade 3, $750,000 Southwest and the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback Handicap.
Go Google Yourself ($6.20) was winning the third stakes race of her career in the Bayakoa. She tracked the pace along the inside, as Lady Suebee took the field through an opening quarter in 23.91 seconds, a half-mile in 47.70 seconds and 1:11.96 for six furlongs before being overtaken by Whoa Nellie. Go Google Yourself was angled off the rail into the stretch by jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr., and the pair took after the clear leader, getting to Whoa Nellie in the shadow of the wire. The winner covered the mile and a sixteenth on a fast track in 1:43.65.
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“She’s a game, classy filly,” said winning trainer Paul McGee. “She always runs hard and she did that again today. But for her to run down that Whoa Nellie, I thought it was very impressive today.”
McGee said the Bayakoa had been the target for Go Google Yourself since her runner-up finish in the Grade 2 Falls City Handicap on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs.
“We pointed for this race coming out of the Falls City because we always space her races out and she does well doing that,” McGee said.
Go Google Yourself will likely return to Oaklawn for her next start, said McGee. He said the options are the Grade 2, $350,000 Azeri on March 14 or the Grade 1, $1 million Apple Blossom on April 18.
Go Google Yourself is now 2 for 2 at Oaklawn, after winning an allowance here last year over Canadian champion Wonder Gadot.
Go Google Yourself is a 5-year-old mare who was bred by Samantha Siegel and races for Jay Em Ess Stable. She earned a first-place check of $120,000 on Monday to improve her career record to 7 wins from 19 starts for earnings of $639,625. Go Google Yourself registered her other stakes wins in the Grade 3 Locust Grove at Churchill Downs and the Groupie Doll at Ellis Park, both in 2019.
