Search Results takes Ruffian as Brown continues roll
Trainer Chad Brown won his sixth graded stakes in the last three days Sunday when Search Results captured the Grade 2, $200,000 Ruffian over stablemate Royal Flag on a wet track at Belmont Park.
Search Results won by three lengths in the one-turn mile for fillies and mares, while Royal Flag finished 1 1/2 lengths clear of third-place finisher Lady Rocket.
Brown started his stakes run Friday, when Bleecker Street won the Grade 3 Modesty at Churchill Downs. The barn then accounted for four stakes Saturday. Jack Christopher won the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile and Speak of the Devil took the Grade 2 Distaff Turf Mile, both at Churchill. The other wins were at Belmont, with Virginia Joy in the Grade 2 Sheepshead Bay and L’Imperator in the Grade 2 Fort Marcy.
Search Results ($9.80) was always prominent Sunday, sitting just off pacesetter Lady Rocket, who took the field through fractions of 22.67 seconds for the opening quarter and 45.33 for the half-mile. Search Results joined the leader at the quarter pole, moved past her in the stretch, then comfortably held off a bid from the comebacking Royal Flag.
Search Results covered the distance on a muddy, sealed track in 1:34.88.
Irad Ortiz Jr. was aboard for Klaravich Stables.
“She’s been really nice,” Ortiz told the New York Racing Association publicity department. “She got over the track just fine.
“I saw it was time to go and I asked her and she responded very well. As soon as I asked her, she took the lead and she did her thing. She’s a really nice filly.”
Search Results was rebounding from a distant third-place finish in the Grade 3 Distaff, in which she was the 3-5 favorite last month at Aqueduct. The Grade 1 winner earned $110,000 for her effort in the Ruffian and now has a career mark of 5 for 8, with earnings of $992,000. She is a 4-year-old daughter of Flatter.
Royal Flag was making her first start since finishing fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November at Del Mar.
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