Odds-on Xigera turns Falls City into a one-horse race
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To the surprise of nearly nobody, Xigera won her third race in a row since being switched from turf to dirt when she captured the Grade 3, $400,000 Falls City Stakes by 6 1/2 lengths Thursday at Churchill Downs.
Xigera went into the starting gate at odds of 1-5 and crossed the wire at 15 cents on the dollar, paying $2.30 to win.
Racing over a speed-biased dirt track, Xigera stalked the pace from third and was kept in the clear and out of trouble by jockey Julien Leparoux as Jag Warrior, tracked by Music Street, set slow splits of 24.03 and 49.02. Leparoux gave his mount more rein past the three-furlong marker and by the quarter pole Xigera had drawn alongside the two leaders.
She had taken their measure by the three-sixteenths marker and raced unchallenged to the wire while put to merely modest pressure by Leparoux.
Music Street edged Jag Warrior for second with Misty Veil right behind them in fourth. Xigera was timed in 1:50.75 for 1 1/8 miles over a fast track.
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Xigera, by Nyquist out of Argent Affair, by Black Tie Affair, won her maiden last year at age 2 on turf and landed her first stakes earlier this year winning the Tepin over the Ellis Park grass course. But a move to dirt earlier this fall took Xigera to a new level.
She won the Seneca Overnight Stakes at Churchill in September by more than six lengths and last month in New York was best by 3 1/2 lengths in the Grade 2 Mother Goose, which is restricted to 3-year-old fillies. Her older rivals, listed-stakes class horses, were no match Thursday.
“We should have a lot of fun with her next year,” said Phil Bauer, private trainer for Rigney Racing. “She’s pretty special on the dirt.”
Rigney and Bauer won the 2022 Falls City with Played Hard, who went on to win the La Troienne this past May at Churchill, and Xigera could follow a similar path, Bauer said.
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