Graded stakes winners set to battle in New York
Untapable is expected to have a paid public workout in the Mother Goose, but the two turf stakes later on Saturday’s program are considerably more competitive. The $100,000 Manila for 3-year-olds and the $200,000 New York for older fillies and mares are the second and third legs of a $300,000-guaranteed late pick four that begins with race 7 at 4:26 p.m. Eastern.
The Grade 2 New York, scheduled for the inner turf at 1 1/4 miles, brings together Riposte and Tannery, who have won the last two renewals of the Sheepshead Bay Stakes, as well as Inimitable Romanee, a 6-year-old New York-bred mare who has blossomed into a multiple Grade 3 winner. They will be challenged by Gathering, Scampering, and Viva Rafaela, who all seek their first graded stakes victory.
Riposte won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot last year, so hopes were high for the Juddmonte Farms homebred when she was sent to Bill Mott. After beginning her U.S. campaign with three defeats at 1 1/8 miles, she broke through with a front-running score in the Sheepshead Bay on yielding turf.
“The first few times she ran [in the United States], we were going nine furlongs, and the fractions were very, very slow,” said Mott. “She found it hard to close into those fractions. I think her being on the lead was just the way the [Sheepshead Bay] came up ... The pace didn’t really develop.”
Similar to Riposte, the foreign-bred Tannery took some time to acclimate here and notched her initial stateside victory in the Sheepshead Bay last year for Alan Goldberg. That race propelled her through a strong second half of the season that included a win in the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes and near misses in the Flower Bowl Invitational and the Red Smith Handicap against males.
Tannery, whose five previous wins on grass all had come on soft or heavy ground, made her 5-year-old debut in Monmouth Park’s 1 1/16-mile Miss Liberty Stakes on Memorial Day and showed surprising early speed to win on firm turf.
“It was a little short for her,” noted Goldberg, who had considered trying the boys again in next Sunday’s United Nations Stakes.
Inimitable Romanee won just two of her first 19 starts for Graham Motion but has flourished in long-distance races since last fall, taking the Long Island Handicap at 28-1, the Orchid Stakes at 10-1, and the Bewitch Stakes at 14-1.
“I’m not surprised that she has come into herself,” said Motion. “I should have tried her at a mile and a half about three years ago, I guess.”
Stablemates clash in Manila
Green Mask, 2 for 2 for Christophe Clement after overcoming traffic to win the Paradise Creek Stakes in his grass debut, takes on seven turf-meant foes, including his new stablemate, Bashart, in the one-mile Manila.
Green Mask was hemmed in leaving the turn and through upper stretch of the Paradise Creek but altered course and kicked in strongly to draw off, despite being late changing leads. He subsequently has trained several times in tandem with Bashart, who captured the Grade 2 With Anticipation Stakes as a 2-year-old for former trainer Todd Pletcher and is the only graded stakes winner in the group.
Other contenders include Cabo Cat, Canzoni, Long On Value, and So Lonesome.
DRF FORMULATOR FACT: No. 2 Canzoni. Is 2 for 2 in turf routes, but 0 for 3 on other surfaces/distances Click for more details. – Mike Hogan
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