Victory Hall surges late to win Shesastonecoldfox
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Victory Hall, one of the few in the field who had knocked on the door in stakes company, got her breakthrough win with a half-length score as the favorite in the $45,000 Shesastonecoldfox Stakes for 2-year-old fillies on a chilly Monday at Finger Lakes.
Victory Hall ($4.04) went to post on Monday with local native Reylu Gutierrez in the irons for trainer John Ortiz, with whom he has partnered to national success. This New York-bred daughter of Kentucky freshman sire Independence Hall - Monday's pair of stakes were for open company, although dominated by statebreds - won two of her first three starts at Delaware Park and Saratoga. In her first start after moving to Ortiz's barn, she brushed the gate at the start and then kept on evenly to finish a distant third in the Maid of the Mist at Aqueduct.
Honest Reason, the longest shot on the board, quickly made the lead despite hopping at the start. She opened a six-length lead at the quarter pole through a sharp opening half-mile of 45.49 seconds, but Victory Hall, who was tracking in second, swung wide into the stretch to take aim.
Gutierrez kept his filly well to the outside to pursue Honest Reason, who was racing off the rail and trying to wander even farther outside despite a right-handed stick from jockey Joel Cruz. Victory Hall collared Honest Reason in the final strides for a half-length win, with Gutierrez pumping his fist in victory.
The time for the six furlongs on a sloppy, sealed track, with the greater Rochester area experiencing its first snowfall of the season overnight and even into the card on Monday, was 1:12.97.
Lifeisbutadream was third, 2 1/2 lengths behind Honest Reason. Mobelladream and Oscar Bound rounded out the finish in what turned out to be a short field of five. Lovely Pashyn and Princess Azara scratched.
Muscle Shoals takes Tin Cup Chalice
In the brother race later on the card, Muscle Shoals ($5.46) was a 5 1/2-length winner of the $45,000 Tin Cup Chalice Stakes.
It was the first stakes score for the gelding, who had Luis Perez in the irons for M. Anthony Ferraro as he came off a maiden special weight score at Finger Lakes. None in the field had yet made a dent beyond the maiden ranks.
Sunday’s Currency was a clear second by three lengths over Savage State. God’s Angel, Instant Success, Kings Dancer, and High Yield Hunk rounded out the order of finish in the field of seven. Chioke and Essentially Fast scratched.
The Shesastonecoldfox and Tin Cup Chalice, the final stakes races of the Finger Lakes season, are named for a pair of local heroes who were, appropriately, stakes winners at Finger Lakes as juveniles. Shesastonecoldfox, a Finger Lakes-based filly, won her first four career starts, including the Lady Finger and the New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes. She was the first locally based horse to start in a Breeders’ Cup race, but she faded after setting the pace in the 2001 Juvenile Fillies.
Tin Cup Chalice, a stakes winner at 2, swept the Big Apple Triple in 2008, taking the Mike Lee at Belmont, New York Derby at Finger Lakes, and Albany at Saratoga. He went on to win the Grade 2 Indiana Derby and received an invitation to compete in the Japan Cup Dirt, where he was 13th.
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