In Italian odds-on in five-horse Just a Game
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In the Just a Game Stakes a year ago at Belmont Park, In Italian served as the sacrificial lamb. This time around, she’s the 800-pound gorilla.
A field of just five was entered in Friday’s Grade 1, $500,000 Just a Game in great part because one of them is In Italian. Set as the 1-2 morning-line favorite, In Italian has joined War Like Goddess atop the North American turf-female ranks, a position she’s likely to reinforce in this one-mile race contested around one turn.
In Italian, trained by Chad Brown for Peter Brant, had only quietly begun her rise in June 2022. She had won her stakes debut March 5, the Honey Fox at Gulfstream Park, and then had raced against a powerful outside closing bias setting the pace and finishing second to soft-ground specialist Speak of the Devil in the Distaff Turf Mile, run over a soggy course May 7 at Churchill Downs.
Then came the Just a Game, where In Italian was sent to chase California speedball Leggs Galore through an intemperate half-mile run in 45.53 seconds. In Italian won the war with Leggs Galore, crushing her, and even beat favored Speak of the Devil, but she had nothing left to contain her stablemate, the Brant-owned Regal Glory, when that mare, at the peak of her powers, came calling in the homestretch.
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The mare, a 5-year-old by Dubawi, has been lights-out ever since. She set a fast pace, then set a nine-furlong track record winning the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga, and in October at Keeneland turned the tables on Regal Glory winning the Grade 1 First Lady by one length. Stretched out to a 1 3/16-mile distance farther than her best, In Italian still might have won the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf had she not gone a little too fast during the early and middle stages. As it was, she was excellent finishing second behind high-class Tuesday.
In Italian’s 5-year-old debut, in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland, suggested she could be even better this year. Dominating on the front end, racing with her ears pricked, In Italian won by three lengths after being asked by jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. to run for about three strides in midstretch.
“A monster” was how trainer Bill Mott described In Italian after running third to her at Keeneland with White Frost. Mott tries In Italian again Friday with Wakanaka, who capitalized on race flow to finish second in front of In Italian in last year’s Just a Game. Wakanaka was fourth, closing fastest, behind yet another Brown-trained filly, Fluffy Socks, in the May 5 Distaff Turf Mile, where Wakanaka fell far, far behind the pacesetter, her mind not focused on racing.
“It looked like she was starting to come into season, and we didn’t notice it until almost literally it was time to come to the paddock,” said Mott.
Second in the Distaff Turf Mile was the horse expected to win, Spendarella, who takes her shot at In Italian on Friday. Probably the best 3-year-old filly middle-distance turf horse in North America last season, Spendarella chased the Brown-trained Haughty in the Distaff Turf Mile, her first start since August, before being run down by Fluffy Socks.
“I was a little disappointed,” said Motion, who trains Spendarella for Gainesway Farm. “A little disappointed in her performance, a little disappointed in tactics. I was frustrated we were taken on, but that’s how my filly runs; she runs handy.”
Spendarella did miss a couple of works in late March when Motion grew concerned with how firm the turf had become in South Florida, waiting to breeze Spendarella until he got her back to his Maryland base at the Fair Hill Training Center. Motion thought he brought a fit horse to Churchill. “I guess there’s nothing like a race to bring a filly forward.”
New Year’s Eve, who appears to be in this for a Grade 1 placing as much as anything, is drawn between In Italian, who has the rail, and Spendarella. Spendarella and Tyler Gaffalione can get the better trip, sitting outside In Italian and shadowing her every move. And it probably won’t matter.
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