Town and Country Racing and Repole Stable's Cairo Consort, whose flat-footed start spotted her rivals several lengths at the break, came with a dramatic late run through the stretch to catch long shot stablemate Alpha Bella approaching the wire and win Saturday's $175,000 Sweetest Chant (G3) at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The 1 1/16-mile Sweetest Chant for fillies was the fourth of five graded-stakes for 3-year-olds and second of two on the grass preceding the $250,000 Holy Bull (G3), the next step on Gulfstream's road to the $1 million Curlin Florida Derby (G1) April 1.
Cairo Consort ($6.40) gave Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher his fourth win of the day and second in a stakes, following Major Dude in the $175,000 Kitten's Joy (G3). He also won with 3-year-olds King's Fortune and Tapit Trice.
It was the third win of the day for jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who tied a track record with seven winners on a single card Friday. Ortiz was also aboard King's Fortune and Major Dude.
Winner of the one-mile Ginger Brew Jan. 7 at Gulfstream in the first start for her new connections, Cairo Consort had her head turned to the right when the starting gates opened and she hesitated to come out, then settled in behind her eight rivals as Sweetlou'sgotaces and Malleymoo raced through splits of 22.75 seconds, 47.11 and 1:11.66.
Alpha Bella, also trained by Pletcher and ridden by Luiz Saez, saved ground early before being swung outside on the turn to take on the leaders. Alpha Bella found herself in front passing the eighth pole but Cairo Consort was in full flight down the center of the stretch and rolled past to a narrow victory.
Heavenly Sunday was third, followed by Metaphysical, Bulsara, Malleymoo, Stephanie's Charm, Padma and Sweetlou'sgotaces.
Cairo Consort won the Catch a Glimpse in her stakes debut and was second in the Natalma (G1) last summer, both on the Woodbine turf, before finishing third at odds of 19-1 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1). Following that effort, she fetched $875,000 at Fasig-Tipton's November mixed sale and sent to Pletcher.
$175,000 Sweetest Chant (G3) Quotes
Trainer Todd Pletcher (Cairo Consort, 1st; Alpha Bella, 2nd): “At the start I didn't give her much chance to recover, she broke so poorly behind the field. But I'll tell you, she came with a really big late run.
“The funny thing is the last time she broke well but she wasn't well-behaved behind the gate so we've been doing a lot of work with her that way. We shipped her over early this week and paddock schooled her, and I thought she was behaving beautifully so I was surprised when she did that at the start. I think she probably enjoyed that kind of trip, sitting back and making one run, so it's something we might keep in consideration down the road.
“I thought for a moment [Alpha Bella] was going to save the day and then all of a sudden Cairo Consort kind of came out of nowhere. A very good effort by both fillies.
“I usually like to take the logical approach and look at the next stake here, but there's also some consideration to try this filly [Cairo Consort] on the dirt at some state. We'll kind of see how things unfold and how she trains.”
Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. (Cairo Consort): “She just moved her head in the gate the same time they opened it. She missed the break, so I had to go to Plan B.
“When she missed the break, I just let her relax. She was happy back there, relaxing. At the same time, she was in contact with the field. She wasn't that far back. By the turn, she wanted to go. I didn't want to go too wide, so we cut the corner. She was there and gave me a good turn of foot.”
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