Sconsin turns tables on Four Graces and Mundaye Call in Eight Belles
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
Four Graces and Mundaye Call both easily beat Sconsin earlier this year. Friday, Four Graces and Mundaye Call beat each other up and Sconsin easily won the Grade 2, $300,000 Eight Belles Stakes at Churchill Downs.
Mundaye Call broke from the rail, Four Graces from the outside, and the two heavy favorites, even money and 4-5, respectively, settled immediately into a speed duel. The first quarter-mile of his seven-furlong dirt race for 3-year-old fillies went in 22.11, the half in a blistering 44.14, and by the quarter pole, the early leaders already were staggering.
:: DRF's Saratoga headquarters – Stakes schedule, previews, recaps, past performances, and more
That’s when Sconsin sprang into action. Last down the backstretch and still about 10 lengths off the lead past the three-furlong marker, Sconsin and jockey James Graham hugged the rail until they angled into the stretch, switching outside the staggering leaders, pouncing on them past the three-sixteenths pole, and rolling to a comfortable victory, crossing the line about 2 1/2 lengths in front.
“That’s what we wanted perfectly, those two fillies duking it out,” said Greg Foley, who trains Sconsin for owner-breeder Lloyd Madison Farms. “We needed that pace. She kicked turning for home, and it was all over.”
Off six furlongs in 1:08.52, Sconsin was timed in 1:21.30 over a fast track and paid $16.40 to win. Four Graces held gamely for second as longshot Never Forget snuck past Mundaye Call for third. Purrfectly Claire and Perfect Happiness were scratched.
Four Graces had bested Sconsin by more than four lengths in an allowance race and in the Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland, and Mundaye Call beat her by more than seven in the Audubon Oaks at Ellis Park. In those races, Sconsin, by Include out of Sconnie, by Tiznow, was at the mercy of pace. Friday, the short-priced pace players found themselves at her mercy.