Lady Shakespeare flies home
ELMONT, N.Y. - In race that played out like a comedic tragedy for Gozzip Girl, Lady Shakespeare rallied from last to win the
by 2 3/4 lengths at Belmont Park on Saturday.
Changing Skies got up for second by one-length over Ave, who finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of Daveron. Gozzip Girl, in her first start since last October, stumbled badly out of the starting gate, unseating jockey Ramon Dominguez. Fortunately, neither Gozzip Girl nor Dominguez was injured. Nehantic Kat and Sweet and Flawless scratched.
With seemingly no speed in the race, Gozzip Girl was expected to control things early on. But when she unseated Dominguez, it was Daveron, who found herself on the lead under Rajiv Maragh, setting fractions of 24.23 seconds for the opening quarter, 48.96 for the half-mile and 1:11.92 for six furlongs.
Meanwhile, Lady Shakespeare, the 2-1 favorite under John Velazquez, was last, more than eight lengths off the pace. Velazquez said he tried to keep after Lady Shakespeare down the backside because he didn't want her to be too far back with only four horses in the race.
Lady Shakespeare was still last approaching the quarter pole when Velazquez gave his filly a left-handed smack to get her outside and into the clear. Once there, Lady Shakespeare kicked in, and made a run at the trio on front of her, finally taking the lead inside the sixteenth pole. She covered 1 1/4 miles over a firm inner turf in 2:00.34 and returned $6.50 to win.
"At the quarter pole, I hit her left-handed, there was an instant reaction," Velazquez said. "It was so quick, I couldn't believe it. Then she got to the lead and her ears went up and she pulled up. She knew what to do."
Lady Shakespeare, a 4-year-old daughter of Theatrical owned by Charles Fipke and trained by Roger Attfield, won for the seventh time in 12 starts. Attfield, who trained third-place finisher Ave, won this race in 2006 with Noble Stella.
Aikenite wins allowance race
Earlier on the card, Aikenite, last down the backside, made a five-wide sweep under David Cohen turning for home and recorded a two-length victory in a first-level allowance race for 3-year-olds and up. Aikenite, who had run in nine consecutive stakes races since winning his debut at Saratoga last summer, ran a mile in 1:35.32 and returned $5 as part of a favored entry with Winaholic, who was third.
The victory likely earned Aikenite a return to stakes company in something like the $500,000 Jim Dandy at Saratoga on July 31, the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth on Aug. 1, or the $750,000 West Virginia Derby on Aug. 7. Aikenite is owned by Dogwood Stable and trained by Todd Pletcher.