Nobody's Fault earns first stakes victory sprinting in Unbridled Sidney
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nobody’s Fault began her career as a turf router, winning her first two starts around two turns going a mile and 1 1/16 miles at Arlington. But ultimately it was sprinting on the grass that she wanted to do most.
She proved as much Saturday in the $64,600 Unbridled Sidney Stakes going five-eighths on grass at Churchill Downs, rating in fifth and rallying powerfully down the center of the turf course to catch Triple Chelsea in the final sixteenth to notch her first stakes victory. Nobody’s Fault completed the distance in 56.65 seconds on a firm course, paying $7 as the second favorite.
It marked the fourth straight race Nobody’s Fault has finished first or second since being cut back to sprints, and followed a runner-up finish to Lady Aurelia, the European 2-year-old filly champion of last year, in the Giant’s Causeway Stakes at Keeneland on April 15.
Winning trainer Neil Pessin said he always had an inkling that Nobody’s Fault would prove to like one-turn grass races, despite her having a staying pedigree, being by Blame and as a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Vacare, winner of the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II at 1 1/8 miles at Keeneland in 2006.
“She’s kind of built and made like a sprinter, even though the family really wasn’t,” Pessin said. “I just wanted to try it, and it worked out great.”
Her trip in the Unbridled Sidney under Corey Lanerie could also be described as great. Nobody’s Fault was able to sit in fifth early, clear of traffic, and always had dead aim on the runner-up, who had surged from third to take command in midstretch.
Nobody’s Fault won by a length, with runner-up Triple Chelsea another length ahead of third-place Lajatico, a late-rallying 14-1 longshot.
Miss Gossip, the 2-1 favorite, ran fourth with a belated rally, with jockey James Graham telling her trainer, Andrew McKeever, the race was “too short.”
Now that Nobody’s Fault is a stakes winner, Pessin said he would likely pursue graded races with her in the near future, either in New York or Canada.