Leave No Trace starts drive to Davona Dale – and beyond
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla – Trainer Phil Serpe probably wasn’t thinking about the ancient Chinese proverb “Every journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step,” even though that is clearly the case with his Eclipse Award finalist Leave No Trace. The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up, Leave No Trace took the first step on what Serpe hopes will be a long and successful journey during her 3-year-old campaign when she breezed a very easy three furlongs in 39.30 under regular exercise rider Lisa Bartkowski here late Sunday morning.
Leave No Trace, a daughter of Outwork, won her first two starts, including the Grade 1 Spinaway, at 2 before finishing third in the Grade 1 Frizette and second behind the presumed division champion Wonder Wheel despite breaking from post 12 in the Juvenile Fillies. She will winter at Gulfstream Park, with the Grade 2 Davona Dale on March 4 her first goal.
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“Her 2-year-old year was really exciting, sensational, whatever you want to call it,” said Serpe. “She really didn’t have a throwout race in her four starts, although looking back I consider the Frizette a throwout because I probably ran her back a bit too quick and she really seemed to dislike the track at Aqueduct. I thought her Breeders’ Cup race was really good considering it was a very difficult decision how we were going to handle the outside post. I thought she ran a terrific race, all things considered.”
Serpe said Leave No Trace was hand-walked for six weeks after the Breeders’ Cup to “let her down and give her a little rest” following her 2-year-old campaign.
“The time off did her good; she looks great,” he said on Monday. I just wanted to do a little something yesterday just to get her mind back in the game. She’ll go on a regular work schedule now. We’re targeting the Davona Dale and then the Gulfstream Park Oaks. Having two races down here this winter is a good schedule to hopefully get her to Kentucky, Belmont, and Saratoga later in the year.”
Serpe has all but conceded the 2-year-old Eclipse Award to Wonder Wheel, who is owned by D. J. Stable and trained by Mark Casse.
“I congratulate them and also warn them that we’re going to be coming after them this year,” Serpe said.
Turf sprint the feature
The new racing week kicks off Wednesday with a nine race card highlighted by an $87,000 allowance race for fillies and mares carded at five furlongs on the turf. The headliner lured a field of nine that includes stakes winners Makin My Move and Ambassador Luna, a 7-year-old who was transferred to Casse’s barn at the end of her 2022 campaign.
The John Kimmel-trained Makin My Move has been freshened since winning the five-furlong Honey Bee over the turf at the Meadowlands on Oct. 7. Ambassador Luna captured the 2020 Unbridled Sidney Stakes over the main track at Churchill Downs for trainer James Gulick, but has not won on grass since the fall of 2019.
The speedy Love and Money and well-traveled Gogo Shoes should prove key contenders, along with Train to Artemus and One Identity. Train to Artemus has won four of her last five starts, and One Identity two straight, both on Tapeta. She has not run on grass.
British rider Kingscote arrives
British jockey Richard Kingscote will make his Gulfstream Park debut aboard South Pointe Drive in Wednesday’s fifth race.
Kingscote will try his luck locally during the off-season for flat racing in Great Britain. The 36-year-old journeyman hasn’t ridden in the U.S. since finishing fifth astride Dr. Simpson in the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Kingscote’s most important triumph in 2022 came in the Group 1 Epsom Derby with Desert Crown, trained by Michael Stoute. He also guided Bay Bridge to victory for Stoute in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, with the previously undefeated sensation Baaeed finishing fourth.
Doug Bredar will handle Kingscote’s riding engagements locally.
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