Pipsy, in North American debut, goes last to first in Soaring Softly

Despite breaking poorly and having not run in 188 days, Pipsy made quite the North American debut Sunday at Aqueduct, rallying from last under Flavien Prat to win the Grade 3, $175,000 Soaring Softly Stakes for 3-year-old fillies by a half-length over Kairyu.

Pipsy, breaking from post 6, leapt in the air when the gates opened, spotting the field about three lengths. Prat immediately guided the Irish-bred filly to the rail and was able to save ground, but was 10 lengths off the pace after the first quarter and still 7 1/2 lengths behind after a half-mile run in 45.40 seconds.

Straightening for home, Prat had to swing Pipsy nine-wide, but she kicked home strong, passing the leaders Amidst Waves and Independenceavenue in deep stretch while outfinishing fellow Irish-bred Kairyu, who was rallying between horses under Kendrick Carmouche. Kairyu finished three-quarters of a length in front of Amidst Waves, who was a nose better than Independenceavenue.

Pipsy had been forwardly placed in two wins last year in Ireland, one on turf, one on synthetic. Trainer William Walden, who was given the horse after being purchased by John Skyes’ Woodford Thoroughbreds, figured she’d be stalking Sunday but certainly wasn’t expecting her to be 10 lengths last early on.

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“That’s not how we had it drawn up at all,” Walden told NYRA publicity after the race. “We had talked to the gate crew and they did what we asked - we asked them to keep their hands off her in there. There was a lot of commotion left and right of her and she was one of the first to load and got a little fractious in there. Obviously, we’ve got some work to do at the gate, but our confidence in her is pretty high right now. She came home with an electric turn of foot. Flavien gave her a great ride.”

Prat said Pipsy got anxious in the gate when other horses around her started acting up. After the poor start, he said he went to Plan B.

“I gave her a chance to see if she would get underneath me and she sure did,” Prat said. “When I tipped her out, she made a great move.”

Pipsy covered the six furlongs in 1:09.41 over good turf and returned $8.70 as the slight favorite. There was $122 more bet to win on Pipsy than on Kodiac Wintergreen, who finished fifth. Behind Kodiac Wintergreen, in order, were Marco T., Golden Ghost, Caress, Artemis Sound and Tiger Belle.

Buttercream Babe, Baraye, and El Terreno as well as the main-track-only entrant Value Area scratched.

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