Sail On By scores upset in Shirley Vargo Handicap

Sail On By broke sharply and kept rolling to pull off an upset in the $50,000 Shirley Vargo Handicap at Northlands Park on Saturday. She paid $37.10 for her front-running win over Anstrum. Sail On By’s heavily favored stablemate, Curlish Figure, finished third in the 1 1/16-mile race for fillies and mares.

The race did not unfold as expected when Tara’s Way broke poorly. Instead of Tara’s Way being the one setting what likely would have been a fast pace, Neptali Ortiz was able to guide Sail On By through moderate interior fractions of 24.36 and 48.35 seconds. She was a length in front of Tara’s Way at the six-furlong mark, and while drifting out, she held a two-length advantage over Curlish Figure at the top of the stretch.

Anstrum, who was last early, looked dangerous when she made a strong move from along the rail at the top of the stretch. However, she couldn’t sustain her bid and ended up finishing 1 1/2 lengths behind the winner. Curlish Figure stalked her stablemate and settled for third after making a three-wide move to reach contention on the stretch turn.

The final time over a track labeled “good” was 1:45.83. It was the first stakes win at Northlands for Ortiz.

“After I got her to relax, I knew the win was mine,” said Ortiz.

Tim Rycroft, who trains Sail On By and Curlish Figure for Riversedge Racing Stables Ltd., was concerned that Sail On By was going too fast early.

“It looked like she was going pretty fast, but I was pretty happy when I saw the 24-second first quarter,” he said.

It was the first stakes win for Sail On By, a 4-year-old daughter of Finality who improved dramatically when she went around three turns for the first time and won a one-mile, first-level allowance race on June 17.