Sturgeon Moon's Audubon Oaks win highlights Gaffalione's big day
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Sturgeon Moon didn’t run as fast nor did she show the flash Big Truzz had in winning the Ellis Park Derby on Sunday, but she scored an impressive-enough win in her own right capturing the Derby’s sister race, the $200,000 Audubon Oaks, by three lengths.
Her win gave jockey Tyler Gaffalione, spending his first full meet at Ellis, six winners on the 10-race program, and Gaffalione won four stakes, including the Ellis Park Derby. Gaffalione returned to race riding last month at Ellis after recovering from a broken ankle he suffered in March.
While Gaffalione gave Sturgeon Moon a patient, ground-saving ride, he had an attentive, willing partner carrying him to victory. Making just her second start since November, her comeback race a solid third in the Indiana Oaks on July 5, Sturgeon Moon broke from post 1 and stuck to the inside down the backstretch and around the turn in this seven-furlong dirt race.
Relaxed and in the bridle while following the pace of Viral Plane Lady, who went her half-mile in 45.14, Sturgeon Moon was taken off the fence as she turned for home to get outside Viral Plane Lady, Princess Proud, and Hollygrove. After leveling off past the three-sixteenths marker, she took aim at the leaders, easily catching two of them before, with great willingness and verve, wearing down Princess Proud in the final half-furlong.
Sturgeon Moon, trained for OXO Equine by Will Walden, clocked 1:23.08 over a fast track and paid $6 as the third choice. The Audubon Oaks drew a dozen entrants but scratched down to a seven-horse field, Hollygrove narrowly favored over Princess Proud.
Sturgeon Moon is a daughter of Instagrand and La Regia, by Warrior’s Reward. Sunday, she was the right horse with the right rider on her back.
R.A. Cowboy Jones, Groupie Doll
Tumbarumba, in the $200,000 R.A. Cowboy Jones, and Impel, in the $200,000 Groupie Doll, scored hard-fought victories Sunday in two one-mile dirt races for older horses.
That Tumbarumba prevailed by a narrow margin in the Cowboy Jones, an open race, came as no surprise to anyone familiar with the 5-year-old Louisiana-bred gelding. Tumbarumba won for the sixth time in 23 starts, four of his other five wins coming by margins of a nose, neck or head, the fifth by three-quarters of a length.
Sunday he got home by a neck as the even-money favorite in a five-runner field from which the two shortest prices, Banishing and Cagliostro, were scratched. Banishing, who would’ve been odds-on, likely is headed to the $1 million Charles Town Classic later this month.
Tumbarumba and jockey Tyler Gaffalione needed most of the Ellis homestretch to get up by a neck over Prince of Power, who was 2 1/2 lengths better than This Is Uscar. Tumbarumba clocked a moderate 1:35.48 and paid $4.24. Brian Lynch trains the gelding, by Oscar Performance out of Naïve Enough, by Street Sense, for Wathnan Racing.
In the sex-restricted Groupie Doll, Impel held on by a head over hard-charging Regaled, who came from last of seven in a slow-paced mile and ran too well to lose. Impel got a perfect trip, stalking and pressing a pedestrian half-mile in 50.25 while racing in the clear, opening a clear midstretch lead but in the end saved by the wire.
Alpine Princess, the 4-5 favorite trained, like the winner, by Brad Cox, finished third by 1 1/4 lengths after an uncomfortable trip. Breaking a touch slow from post 1, Impel appeared to shy from the gap that comes just after the start where the one-mile chute joins the main track. She pulled far too hard while trapped behind the slow pace and was unable to finish the job after coming between horses into a winning position at the three-sixteenths marker.
The win meant much for Impel, a first stakes score for a Juddmonte Farms homebred making her 10th start. Impel, by Quality Road out of Your Love, by Flatter, finished third at odds of 2-1 in the Grade 1 Ashland in April 2024, got progressively slower through last summer, lost the first two races of her 4-year-old campaign, and cleared her second allowance condition June 22 at Churchill Downs beating just four horses while earning a modest 75 Beyer Speed Figure.
Florent Geroux worked out a perfect trip for the sizeable 4-year-old filly and Impel added a stakes win to her resume.
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