Tuttipaesi wins inaugural Suffolk Downs Distaff Turf

EAST BOSTON, MASS. – Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who enjoyed success at Suffolk Downs with Cigar in the 1995 and 1996 runnings of the Massachusetts Handicap, captured the inaugural running of the featured $75,000 Suffolk Downs Distaff Turf on Saturday with the Irish-bred Tuttipaesi.

Valor Ladies’ 5-year-old gray mare made every pole a winning one under Chris DeCarlo as she covered about 1 1/16 miles over a course rated good in 1:47.40 to win by 3 1/4 lengths. Calumet Farm’s Hellenistic was second for trainer Chad Brown and Maximova took third for Gallagher’s Stud and Christophe Clement.

The win was the second on the day for the Mott-DeCarlo tandem, which won a $45,000 optional-claiming race with Divine Praises for Three Chimneys Farm and Besilu Stables earlier.

“They said to break and let her tell me what she wanted to do,” said DeCarlo. “It was better not to fight her, so I did just what they said. I’ve never ridden here before. It’s cold, but I had a good day.”

Tuttipaesi, who now has won 5 of 14 starts and upped her earnings to $317,629, returned $7.80 as the 5-2 favorite in the field of six. Means Well, Red Hot Tweet, Keystone Kelly, and Montana Native, entered for the main track only, scratched.

The morning rains and windy, raw, and cool conditions couldn’t keep the crowd away, with 8,554 fans turning out for the second of the 80-year-old track’s three live racing and food truck and craft beer festival days in 2015.

Even though an across-the-board reduction in the takeout to 15 percent on all wagers was implemented, it did not have a dramatic effect on the total handle on the 12-race card.

“One day is too small of a sample size to draw definitive conclusions, but we are up quite a bit on all-sources handle, so that's quite encouraging,” said Chip Tuttle, chief operating officer.

“If you’re bettor, you’re a bettor,” said Roy Googins, who has been wagering at Suffolk Downs for 60 years and reflected the sentiment of most of the regulars surveyed. “It hasn’t changed the tracks I play or the way I play them at all.”

But Warren Curtin, a partner in the local Charles River Racing syndicate who bred his first horse in Massachusetts in 1975, begged to differ and liked the break given to his wallet.

“It helps,” said Curtin, a 42-year ticket-taker at Fenway Park who proudly displayed his Boston Red Sox championship ring from the 2007 World Series. “I’m playing more multiple bets and the pick three and pick four.”

In the trio of stakes races on the card restricted to Massachusetts-breds and offering purses of $75,000 each, all three stakes winners from the first live racing card Sept. 5 returned to the winner’s circle with Tammi Piermarini aboard each.

Langdon Whilby and Mary Beth Reiss homebred Miss Whilby was an easy gate-to-wire winner of the Louise Kimball for 3-year-olds by 9 1/4 lengths. The filly, who boasts four open company wins and defeated males, covered six furlongs in 1:00.76 on a fast track and paid $2.40 on a $2 wager as the prohibitive favorite in a field scratched down to five. There was no place or show wagering.

Theresa Horkey’s Worth the Worry made light work of the Last Dance Stakes, rating kindly behind the early speed under Jose Baez before assuming command in the far turn and kicking clear through the lane to prevail by 9 1/2 lengths. The 2-5 favorite in the field of seven traveled one mile, 70 yards in 1:45 and paid $2.80 for a $2 bet.

Patricia Moseley homebred Navy Nurse was a two-length winner of the First Episode Stakes, covering one mile, 70 yards in 1:47.10 as the 3-5 favorite in the field of six fillies and mares. She returned $3.40 for a $2 wager.

Two longtime members of the Suffolk Downs family who passed away in recent months, jockey Jill Jellison and track superintendent Steve Pini, were honored with memorial races named for them.

The third and final live racing day at Suffolk Downs will be Oct. 31.