Sharp Starr edges Portal Creek to take Go for Wand

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - The 3-year-old filly Sharp Starr, a dominant winner against New York-breds in her last start, made the successful transition into open company Saturday at Aqueduct, outfinishing the pacesetting 4-year-old Portal Creek to win the Grade 3, $100,000 Go for Wand Handicap by a neck.

It was 12 lengths back to Nonna Madeline, favored by $504 over Sharp Starr, in third. Stand for the Flag was fourth, followed by Graceful Princess and Overheated.

Sharp Starr gave trainer Horacio DePaz his first graded stakes victory and eighth stakes win overall.

Four weeks ago, Sharp Starr won a first-level allowance race against New York-breds by 15 3/4 lengths, earning a gaudy 101 Beyer Speed Figure. It was the type of performance DePaz and owner/breeder Barry Schwartz would have liked to have seen in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on Oct. 3. Instead, she finished seventh of 10 that day.

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Sharp Starr’s allowance win came when cut back to a one-turn mile and when jockey Trevor McCarthy got her involved in the race. The Go for Wand was also a one-turn mile and jockey Jose Ortiz employed similar tactics Saturday.

Sharp Starr again broke well and took up a stalking position, sitting one length off Portal Creek, who under Kendrick Carmouche set fractions of 23.26 seconds for the quarter, 46.72 for the half-mile and 1:11.52 for six furlongs.

Ortiz had to keep busy on Sharp Starr - slapping her four times left-handed to keep her in position turning for home. In the lane, Sharp Starr gradually got to, and then by, Portal Creek for the narrow victory.

“We were running her two turns and she was breaking a little bit slow,” Ortiz said. “They finally figured it out last time, he cut her back to a one-turn mile, she broke good and McCarthy put her in the game and we stuck with that kind of racing style today. She broke sharp, she was there for me and every time I asked her she was there.”

Sharp Starr, a daughter of Munnings, covered the mile in 1:36.75 over a sealed, sloppy track and returned $4.50 as the second choice. Sharp Starr is now 3 for 3 in one-turn mile races.

“She obviously likes the one-turn mile, it sets up for her a little bit better,” DePaz said. “I’m happy she was able to repeat off that big effort from last time.”

DePaz, who will have a 20-to-25-horse string in New York this winter, will look to keep Sharp Starr at the one-turn mile, but there aren’t stakes for her in New York at that distance until March, in either the $125,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational on March 6 or the $100,000 Biogio’s Rose against New York-breds on March 7.