Randomized goes gate to wire in Alabama victory
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Trainer Chad Brown thought enough of Randomized to move her up from a maiden victory in March to the Grade 1 Acorn in June.
While that didn’t work out — Randomized finished sixth ,11 1/2 lengths behind Pretty Mischievous — Brown didn’t lose faith in his filly. Instead, he regrouped and was prepared to run her in another Grade 1 stakes this year. It wasn’t necessarily the Alabama he had in mind, however.
With some prodding from his owner, Seth Klarman, Brown ran Randomized in the Grade 1, $600,000 Alabama and the filly rewarded her connections with a front-running, four-length victory in Saratoga’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.
Ridden by Joel Rosario, Randomized made a relatively easy lead through fractions of 23.45 seconds for the quarter, 47.86 for the half, 1:12.33 for six furlongs, 1:37.17 for the mile, and she covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.07, getting a 98 Beyer Speed Figure. Randomized returned $16.20 as the fifth choice in the field of 10.
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Wet Paint, the 9-5 Alabama favorite coming off her Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks victory, finished second, 1 1/2 lengths clear of Defining Purpose. It was 8 1/2 lengths back to 61-1 longshot Sabra Tuff in fourth.
Taxed finished fifth, but was disqualified and placed sixth for cutting in front of Gambling Girl, causing that one to clip heels and stumble soon after the start. Gambling Girl finished sixth and was elevated to fifth. Unrelated to the stumble, Gambling Girl bled from her nostrils.
Sacred Wish finished seventh, followed by Fireline, Julia Shining, and Chocolate Gelato.
Though Brown had been disappointed in Randomized’s sixth-place finish in the Acorn, he deduced the filly simply didn’t like dirt being kicked back in her face, which happened in that race.
Brown ran Randomized in the listed Wilton Stakes going one mile here July 14 and she cruised to a front-running victory that day.
Brown was considering the Grade 1, $1 million Cotillion, a 1 1/16-mile race at Parx on Sept. 23. Klarman was more keen on the Alabama and the two agreed to enter and take a look.
“He said 'Look if you’re willing to do it, I have a good feeling about this’ and he was right,” Brown said.
One of the reasons Brown was willing to stay in the Alabama is he knew his filly was among the fastest 3-year-old fillies in the crop and the Ragozin figures showed that — albeit at one mile.
“Now, that doesn’t mean she’ll go a mile and a quarter but she’s at that top percentile of this crop,” Brown said. “I was very disappointed after the Acorn, I regretted moving her that far up in class. But when she came up here and won opening weekend, the way she did it and how she came back, I realized how the Acorn was not representative of her.”
Though Randomized had the speed to be forward in the Alabama, it appeared that Chocolate Gelato might have been put in the race to be a pace-maker for her stablemate Gambling Girl. Both fillies are owned by Mike Repole and trained by Todd Pletcher.
With Randomized drawn outside of Chocolate Gelato, Brown figured that his filly could simply sit to that one’s outside.
“A big factor to stay in the race was that we were drawn outside of her,” Brown said. “We had a Plan B here, that if [Chocolate Gelato] did go hard to be a pacemaker possibly for Gambling Girl that we were going to just stay next to her, clear, and just keep a clean face.”
Rosario was able to break Randomized out of the gate alertly and though Defining Purpose, under Brian Hernandez Jr., was in close proximity to her outside early, Randomized was traveling easily. Approaching the three-furlong pole, Defining Purpose couldn’t keep up with Randomized who just kept on going while kept several paths off the rail.
“She was moving so well, nice and easy over the ground,” Rosario said. “A mile and a quarter is a long way, you always have to have something left for the end…. I asked her turning for home, it looked like she just started running. That was a really good performance.”
Wet Paint, who typically does her best running from off the pace, was within 4 1/2 lengths of the lead under Flavien Prat. She made a mild bid along the inside in the stretch but wasn’t a serious threat to Randomized.
“I think the winner had it pretty easy on the lead, but in the meantime I was a lot closer than I usually [am],” Prat said. “Naturally, she put herself closer in the race. I just didn’t feel I had any excuse. Hats off to the winner, she was better today.”
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