Uni uses good start, good finish for Sands Point triumph

ELMONT, N.Y. - A better start led to a better finish for Uni, who won her first North American stakes by running down pace-setting La Coronel to win Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Sands Point by a neck at Belmont Park.

Uni had shown a strong turn of foot in her first two starts in the U.S, but could manage only a third-place finish in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks here in July and a second in the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga in August.

Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. was intent Saturday on getting out of the gate better than in those two races. Uni actually broke on top, but Ortiz let others go and tucked his filly into a ground-saving position, about two lengths off the early pace.

La Coronel, under Jose Lezcano, set fractions of 25.67 for the quarter and 49.99 for the half-mile over a course labeled firm, but one that had some give in it after mid-afternoon showers hit the area. Uni had dropped back about five lengths off the pace midway down the backstretch and around the turn, but Ortiz appeared to be biding his time.

Approaching the top of the stretch, Ortiz guided Uni six wide, just inside her stablemate Inflexibility. La Coronel still had a two-length advantage with a furlong to go, but Uni, responding to Ortiz’s right-handed whip, ran that one down in the final strides.

Uni, a Great Britain-bred daughter of More Than Ready, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.97 and returned $4.70 as the 6-5 favorite. Uni is owned by a partnership that includes Michael Dubb, Sol Kumin’s Head of Plains Partners, Michael Caruso’s Bethlehem Stables, and Robert LaPenta. Uni is trained by Chad Brown, who won three races on Saturday’s card.

“We were tucked in good there in the first turn,” Brown said. “I thought she got a really good trip, maybe got held up a touch there and had to wait to make her run until she found some room, but man, this horse has some kick.”

Brown called Uni’s performance “her best race to date.”

Ortiz said the good start was the key to victory.

“The last two times my filly broke slow out of there, I was trying to break good and be a little closer,” said Ortiz, who won three races on Saturday’s card. “She broke good, put me in a good position, saving round, and I think that was the key. Then I tipped her out and my filly took off when I asked her.”

La Coronel had not set the early pace in any of her 10 previous starts, but with a lack of a confirmed front-runner in the Sands Point, her connections weren’t surprised - or disappointed - to see her on the lead Saturday.

“It was pretty apparent there wasn’t a whole lot of speed in there, she’s kind of a hard horse to handle early on in a race so I thought we may inherit the lead going into the first turn,” said Norm Casse, assistant to his father Mark. “She broke so sharp, you go right into the turn, you’re on the rail you’re going to inherit the lead. With all that being said, I thought it was a much improved effort from the last time she ran. We have more to look forward too.”

La Coronel, who was coming off a fouth-place finish in the Lake Placid, finished second Saturday by 1 1/4 lengths over Fault, who was followed, in order, by Inflexibility, Fifty Five, Vue Fantastique, Empressof the Nile and Defiant Honor.