Kept Waiting makes quick work of Broadway Stakes
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Neither snow, nor slop nor short rest prevented Kept Waiting from the swift completion of Sunday’s $100,000 Broadway Stakes at Aqueduct.
Wheeling back one week after she won a first-level allowance by eight lengths in her first career start on dirt, Kept Waiting chased the pacesetting Sadie Lady, took over from that one at the three-sixteenths pole and drew clear to win the Broadway by 5 1/2 lengths.
Time Limit, who raced a joint second with Kept Waiting down the backside, outfinished favored Breakfastatbonnies by a half-length for second. Longshot Letmetakethiscall finished fourth, followed, in order, by Chasing Cara, Sadie Lady, and Awillaway.
Kept Waiting, a 5-year-old daughter of Broken Vow, had made the first nine starts of her career on turf, including a second-level statebred allowance win here Dec. 2. Kept Waiting had trained so well on dirt that trainer Robert Falcone Jr. felt compelled to give that surface a try. Kept Waiting ran so well last Sunday that Falcone and her owners opted to pay a $1,000 fee to supplement Kept Waiting to the Broadway and evaluate the competition before deciding whether to run.
On paper, Falcone saw plenty of speed in the race, believing that would set it up for Kept Waiting from off the pace.
As it turned out, Sadie Lady was faster than the other speed types early, gunning out to a 4 1/2-length lead under Kendrick Carmouche after an opening quarter in 22.69 seconds. But Sadie Lady had proven ineffective over sloppy tracks in the past and that fact did not change Sunday.
Sadie Lady’s lead was down to a length approaching the quarter pole as Kept Waiting, Time Limit and a four-wide Breakfastatbonnies were closing in. Kept Waiting grabbed the lead from Sadie Lady at the three-sixteenths pole and drew clear from there.
Kept Waiting, owned by Sanford and Irwin Goldfarb and Nice Guys Stable, covered the six furlongs in 1:12.81 and returned $6.90 as the second choice.
Falcone wasn’t as concerned with the quick turnaround as he was with the potential of Kept Waiting getting slop in her face and resenting it.
“She didn’t take too much kickback last time, I was more concerned with getting that slop in the face and her being a little bit hesitant,” Falcone said. “But she took it great.”
Franco picked up the mount on Kept Waiting as Carmouche, who rode her last week, was committed on Sadie Lady. Franco said he hoped that there was someone to run with Sadie Lady early, but ultimately it didn’t matter.
“I was able to be where I wanted to be behind the speed and at the five-sixteenths pole, I just tapped her on the shoulder and she was there for me,” said Franco, who won his first stakes at the winter meet in his 18th try.
Falcone said he would keep Kept Waiting on the dirt for the foreseeable future. He is unlikely to run her back in the $100,000 Correction on March 12, but may look at the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct on April 9.
The Broadway likely was the last race for Sadie Lady, who won the Correction Stakes and the Dancin Renee. Trainer Rob Atras said Sadie Lady is expected to be retired and bred. Sadie Lady had a record of 8-1-3 from 23 starts and earnings of $419,732.
*** When Prince of Joy pulled a front-running upset at 30-1 odds in the Sunday finale, it resulted in a pick-6 carryover of $46.486 into Friday’s card.
There is no racing Thursday as next week’s four-day schedule will run Friday through Monday, the latter a Presidents’ Day program and one of just two Monday cards to be run at NYRA in 2022.