The Very One a day at the office for R Calli Kim

On paper, all R Calli Kim needed to do to win the The Very One Stakes was run her race. She did, and the form did not lie as R Calli Kim stormed down the center of the track to post a two-length victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 The Very One.

Tyler Gaffalione rode the winner for trainer Brendan Walsh and owners Averill Racing and Two Eight Racing. Anatolian pulled a wide trip but still managed to finish second after providing cover off the far turn for R Calli Kim. Cairo Consort, who stalked pacesetting Angel Nadeshiko and took a brief mid-stretch lead, couldn’t come close to finishing with the winner but held third.

No one was in R Calli Kim’s league Saturday, as Gaffalione held the 6-5 favorite near the rear of a 10-runner field during the early and middle stages of this three-turn, 1 3/8-mile grass race. Posted fractions were lively, the opening half going in 47.98, and with plenty of pace in front of her, R Calli Kim got the trip she needed.

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Finishing second Jan. 27 in the La Prevoyante Stakes, R Calli Kim had tried to rally up the fence, but Saturday, Gaffalione made certain to keep his mount wide and in the clear as she wound up for the stretch run. He kept R Calli Kim on Anatolian’s heels to the three-sixteenths pole, coming outside before the furlong marker to let R Calli Kim mow down the horses still in front of her.

R Calli Kim paid $4.40 as the favorite and clocked the distance in 2:13.01, earning a 90 Beyer Speed Figure. The 7-year-old is a daughter of Revolutionary and the More Than Ready mare It Takes Two – and her career trajectory has been unusual.

R Calli Kim debuted in April 2020 racing for a $16,000 claiming tag at Tampa Bay Downs. She won first out by more than six lengths, and it would not be the only time connections took an edge with R Calli Kim.

R Calli Kim developed only modestly through the summer of 2022, when she was turned over to Walsh, who had trained her sister Temple City Terror. Temple City Terror won two graded turf stakes, one at 1 3/8 miles, the other at 1 1/2 miles, and Walsh immediately tried R Calli Kim at 1 3/8 miles, farther than she’d ever run. But after that one modest start, R Calli Kim didn’t race for more than a year.

When she returned to action, it was for a $32,000 claiming tag last summer at Saratoga, and while R Calli Kim found plenty of trouble, she still won easily, far superior to horses at that class level. She wound up winning all four of her 2023 starts, including the Grade 3 Long Island, while earning nearly $372,000, and but for the tough second in the La Prevoyante, R Calli Kim would be undefeated for Walsh. Saturday, she was not losing the The Very One if she showed up, and she did.

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