Seneca Park shows new dimension in Untapable Stakes victory
:quality(75))
Seneca Park busted straight to the lead and dominated her debut last month at Ellis Park, and her trainer, Dallas Stewart, wasn’t sweating the possibility the filly would fall into a different kind of trip Sunday at Kentucky Downs in the Untapable Stakes. Stewart said he was leaving what happened after the gate sprang to jockey Brian Hernandez Jr., who worked out a perfect pocket trip that helped propel Seneca Park to a neck victory in the $747,488 Untapable, a 6 1/2-furlong dash for juvenile fillies.
Seneca Park had to work to best Luminous Beauty, who shipped from New York for trainer Jena Antonucci to make her turf debut and ran lights-out in the Untapable. Severely Overpayin set the pace but proved no match for the top two, checking in third, nearly three lengths behind Luminous Beauty and 1 1/2 lengths in front of fourth-place Waggley, another first-time turfer.
Seneca Park ($14.55 per Kentucky Downs’s $5 base win wager) did show good gate speed breaking from the rail, but Flavien Prat on Severely Overpayin was intent on taking the lead, and Hernandez eased his mount back to track the pacesetter. Seneca Park did not resist the change in tactics, settling comfortably for Hernandez, who eased her off the fence with about a quarter-mile to run, getting outside of Severely Overpayin and Luminous Beauty. Severely Overpayin hung tough to the furlong grounds, Luminous Beauty even deeper into the race than that, but Seneca Park had too much for both of them.
Stewart trains Seneca Park for the Holy Cow Stable, which bought the filly for $70,000 at auction earlier this year. Bred in Kentucky by Southern Comfort Farm, Seneca Park is by Golden Pal out of Wendy Wow, by Invasor.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.
