Ichiban breezes in Fleet Indian for first stakes triumph

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ichiban came to Saratoga a maiden. She will leave a stakes winner, as she easily captured Sunday’s $186,000 Fleet Indian Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies by 5 1/4 lengths for her third win of the meet.

Ichiban, trained by Linda Rice, defeated her stablemate Amanda’s Folly, who finished 15 1/2 lengths in front of race favorite Timely Conquest, the 3-5 favorite. Krystalheir was basically eased. Cairo Sugar was scratched a few minutes before post time by the stewards based on a recommendation from the on-track veterinarian.

Ichiban, who lost her first four starts, won a 7-furlong maiden race here on July 15. Eleven days later, she captured a statebred first-level allowance race going 1 1/8 miles by a head. It looked on paper as though her stablemate, Amanda’s Folly, coming off a second-level allowance win here on July 26, would be on the lead. But Jose Ortiz, the rider of Ichiban, said his filly broke better.

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Ichiban sat right of Timely Conquest, under John Velazquez, before taking over outside the quarter pole. The race was basically over at that point as Amanda’s Folly, who looked as though she would be on the lead, sat third and rallied in the lane to be second.

“I broke like a shot out of there, I could have taken the lead if I wanted to, I knew [Timely Conquest] was faster so I let [Velazquez] slip inside of me and let me apply the pressure every step of the way and that’s what I did,” Ortiz said.

Ichiban, a daughter of Street Sense owned by Cypress Creek Equine, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:53.23 and returned $6.60 as the second choice.

“Ichiban, frankly, had been training so forwardly, it didn’t surprise me at all that she broke sharp, actually a little faster than the other filly,” Rice said. “Typically, Amanda’s Folly showed me more stamina, but Ichiban has improved week by week and I have high hopes for her.”

Rice said a race like the $250,000 Empire Distaff at Aqueduct on Oct. 29 could be in Ichiban’s future.

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