Victorious Vye puts unbeaten mark on line

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Victorious Vye will try and remain undefeated when she takes on Vying Ty Grr in the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity for 2-year-old fillies at Hastings Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong feature drew 10 horses and goes as the seventh race.

Trained by Rob Gilker, Victorious Vye scored an impressive win in her debut. With Dave Wilson aboard, she overcame a slow start to get up just in time in a six-furlong maiden special weight race on Aug. 18. Victorious Vye proved her debut was no fluke when she came back and scored an easy 3 1/2-length win over Therussianrocket in the $66,000 CTHS Sales Stakes on Sept. 12.

According to Wilson's agent, Daryl Snow, Wilson is currently in the Langley Memorial hospital with a case of acute pancreatitis and won't be riding this weekend. Fernando Perez picks up the mount.

Gilker hopes for better luck than he had with Tommy Danzigger, who also lost his usual rider Pedro Alvarado prior to the Grade 3, $275,000 British Columbia Derby last Sunday. Sent off as the even-money favorite with Perez also picking up the mount, Tommy Danzigger finished seventh.

Gilker isn't discounting the chances of the other two fillies he entered in the Sadie Diamond Futurity, Storm Vixen and Indy Beauty. Storm Vixen is coming off of a neck loss in a maiden special weight race Sept. 13. Indy Beauty won a $12,500 maiden race by two lengths in her debut on Sept. 19.

"I have three nice fillies in the race and it's not clear to me which one is the best," he said.

The horse Gilker is concerned about is Vying Ty Grr. Trained by Barbara Heads, Vying Ty Grr is coming off of a dull fifth-place finish behind Otero in the Lassie Stakes on Aug. 26. In her previous start she won the B.C. Cup Debutante by 5 1/4 lengths with her usual rider Richard Hamel aboard. Heads says to toss her poor performance in the Lassie.

"It turned out she had mucus," said Heads. "Richard was really good. He knew she wasn't quite right during the race and he eased up on her. We sent her to the farm for a little bit of rest and she's been training excellent since she came back."

Therussianrocket could be coming up to a big race. Trained by Tak Inouye, Therussianrocket ran a much-improved race to finish second in the CTHS Sales Stakes and could continue her forward progress in the second start of her form cycle.