Selflessly Pips Sweet Melania in Lake George

For the considerable success he’s achieved on the New York circuit and particularly on the turf, it wasn’t until 2015 that trainer Chad Brown unsaddled the winner of the GIII Lake George S. for the first time (Mrs McDougal {Medaglia d’Oro}).

The stable’s lone chance in Friday’s renewal, Selflessly (More Than Ready), was pegged as a 6-1 chance on David Aragona’s morning line, but the tote read a remarkable 14-1 at post time and those who ignored her paid dearly, as the Maryland-bred was up in the final jump to upset 7-10 Sweet Melania (American Pharoah). The future Hall of Fame conditioner has now won the Lake George in four of the last six years.

“Some loyal Chad Brown fans made money today, for sure,” Brown deadpanned after the victory.

Sweet Melania, who enjoyed a very soft time of things on the engine when taking her seasonal debut in the GIII Wonder Again S. at Belmont June 20, was beaten for speed by outposted longshots Windracer (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) and Sugar Fix (Treasure Beach {GB}), but used her rail draw to best advantage to secure the box seat while traveling comfortably beneath jockey Jose Ortiz. David Cohen, pinch-hitting for the sidelined Irad Ortiz, Jr. had selflessly in a ground-saving position in the slipstream of the long odds-on choice down the backstretch. Waited with behind the top two nearing the stretch, Sweet Melania was asked to sprint and she gamely went underneath Windrush to grab control a furlong from home. But Cohen kept busy on Selflessly and grabbed Sweet Melania under whipless encouragement in the shadow of the wire.

“We were happy to get a good trip behind the horse [Sweet Melania] I thought would take us the whole way,” said Cohen, winning his first graded race at Saratoga since dead-heating in the 2012 GI Travers S. aboard Golden Ticket (Speightstown). “You never really want to get stuck behind a horse that’s going to back up into you. My filly really finished up strong and showed a lot of heart.”

A fast-finishing second sprinting 5 1/2 furlongs over this course one year ago to the day, Selflessly broke her maiden in the GII Miss Grillo S. Sept. 29 and was a creditable fifth, two spots behind Sweet Melania, in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf Nov. 1. An 11-4 chance in the Wonder Again, she went to her knees at the start, suffering some superficial cuts, according to Brown, and finished a too-bad-to-be-true fifth.

Pedigree Notes:

One of 203 black-type winners and 91 graded/group winners for her enormously successful dual-hemisphere sire, Selflessly is out of an unplaced half-sister to Sans Souci Island (Chester House), the dam of MGSW River Seven (Johannesburg) and SP Henry’s Island (Stormy Atlantic). Uniformly Yours is responsible for the 2-year-old filly Honor Yours (Honor Code), a yearling colt by Kitten’s Joy and a colt foal by the Hill ‘n’ Dale sire. She was most recently bred back to 23-year-old More Than Ready.

Friday, Saratoga
LAKE GEORGE S.-GIII, $100,000, Saratoga, 8-28, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:36.06, gd.
1–SELFLESSLY, 122, f, 3, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Uniformly Yours, by Grand Slam
                2nd Dam: Faux Pas (Ire), by Sadler’s Wells
                3rd Dam: Negligence (GB), by Roan Rocket (GB)
($190,000 Wlg ’17 KEENOV). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.;
B-George Louis Doetsch (MD); T-Chad C. Brown; J-David
Cohen. $55,000. Lifetime Record: 5-2-1-0, $219,000. *1/2 to
Enchanted Ghost (Ghostzapper), MSW, $271,182. Werk Nick
   Rating:  Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Sweet Melania, 124, f, 3, American Pharoah–Sweet N
Discreet, by Discreet Cat. ($600,000 Ylg ’18 KEESEP). O-Low,
Lawana L. and Robert E.; B-St. Elias Stables, LLC (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher. $20,000.
3–Witez, 118, f, 3, More Than Ready–Glamour N Glory, by
Gulch. O/B-Mary Ann Charlston (KY); T-Ian R. Wilkes. $12,000.
Margins: NO, HF, 3/4. Odds: 14.30, 0.70, 9.60.
Also Ran: Micheline, Sugar Fix, American Giant, My Sassy Sarah, Windracer (Ire), Velvet Crush, Cat’s Pajamas. Scratched: Miss Peppina. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

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‘She Owes Us Nothing’: Rushing Fall Likely To Train Up To Breeders’ Cup

Owner Bob Edwards of e Five Thoroughbred Racing reported that six-time Grade 1-winner Rushing Fall will likely not have a start before the Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, slated for November 6-7 at Keeneland.

Last Sunday, the talented 5-year-old daughter of More Than Ready gave trainer Chad Brown a fifth straight victory in the 1 1/8-mile Diana for fillies and mares over the inner turf at Saratoga.

Rushing Fall has displayed versatility, winning all three of her starts this year over different turf courses, having captured the Grade 3 Beaugay on June 3 at Belmont Park and the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on July 11 at Keeneland in a record time of 1:39.02. She added a hard-fought Diana score, out-dueling a stubborn Mean Mary down the Saratoga stretch.

“We'll probably hold off until the Breeders' Cup,” Edwards said. “If you look at her race pattern, I try to run her four or five times max. She owes us nothing and is stronger after the more time you give her. She broke the record in the Jenny Wiley and came close to breaking it here. There wasn't any quitting with either of those two horses.”

Rushing Fall joined Lady Eli and Beholder as North American-based females to score Grade 1 triumphs at ages 2, 3, 4 and 5 having won at Keeneland during each of those campaigns.

“She's gotten a lot stronger,” Edwards said. “You can see she's a different horse this year than last year. She put on some weight during the offseason at Stonestreet in Ocala, and she came back more mature and more robust of a mare. Javier said she's a lot calmer now and knows her job better.”

Both the Breeders' Cup Mile against colts and Filly and Mare Turf could be in play for Rushing Fall, but the decision of which race she goes in will ultimately be left up to Brown. This year the Filly and Mare Turf will be contested at 1 3/16 miles and has been won by Brown four times.

“She's in that big shed row of Grade 1 winners at Chad's barn and we're looking forward to regrouping and getting her to Keeneland,” Edwards said.

Bred in Kentucky by Fred Hertrich III and John Fielding, Rushing Fall is out of the Forestry broodmare Autumnal and was bought for $320,000 at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

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Saturday’s Racing Insights for Aug. 29

SPOTLIGHT ON RUNHAPPY BABY IN LOADED SARATOGA MAIDEN

6th-SAR, $72K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 3:57 p.m. ET

HAPPYMAC (Runhappy), an $800,000 RNA at the OBS June Sale (:20 3/5), looks like the one to beat in this extremely deep baby race at the Spa. The half-brother to runaway GII Amsterdam S. winner and GI Breeders’ Cup Sprint runner-up Shancelot (Shanghai Bobby) fired a five-furlong bullet from the gate in :59 2/5 (1/12) at Saratoga Aug. 17. Happymac, drawn widest of all in post 10 for the Heiligbrodts and Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen, previously brought $125,000 at KEEJAN and $360,000 at KEESEP as a yearling. He is the 5-2 morning-line favorite.

After unleashing Reinvestment Risk (Upstart) to a jaw-dropping ‘TDN Rising Star’ performance earlier this meet, trainer Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables debut another son of the Airdrie Stud freshman sire in $600,000 OBS March (:21) graduate Founder (Upstart).

The rail-drawn Newbomb (Speightstown), a half-brother to the talented GSW & MGISP My Happy Face (Tiz Wonderful), debuts for Todd Pletcher. The $155,000 FTKOCT yearling has a pair of bullet workouts on the tab for this.

The field also includes $600,000 KEESEP graduate Charleston Strong (Flatter) and $375,000 KEESEP graduate Majestic Street (Street Sense), a half-brother to MGSW St. Joe Bay (Saint Anddan). TJCIS PPs

MILLION DOLLAR WAR FRONT KEESEP YEARLING DEBUTS

10th-SAR, $72K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 6:16 p.m. ET

Trainer Chad Brown will saddle a pair of promising youngsters here, including Shadwell Stable’s $1-million KEESEP yearling purchase ZAINALARAB (War Front). She is the first foal out of Delightful Joy (Tapit), heroine of the GIII Monmouth Oaks. Brown will also tighten the girth on Three Chimneys Farm homebred Always Carina (Malibu Moon), a half-sister to the Brown-trained unbeaten GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf hero Structor (Palace Malice). TJCIS PPs

PRICEY GHOSTZAPPER COLT MAKES SECOND START AT DEL MAR

6th-DMR, $55K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 7:40 p.m. ET

VITTORIO (Ghostzapper), a $750,000 OBS Spring purchase (bullet :9 4/5) by Kaleem Shah, looks to build off a better-than-it-looked fifth-place finish after a slow start and wide trip on debut going five furlongs Aug. 1 (Second Chances). The bay fired a four-furlong bullet in :47 (1/113) for trainer Simon Callaghan from the gate Aug. 16. TJCIS PPs

QUEEN’S PLATE WINNER RETURNS FROM LENGTHY LAYOFF

9th-DMR, $59K, OC62K, 3yo/up, 1 1/16mT, 9:10 p.m. ET

Canadian Classic winner ONE BAD BOY (Twirling Candy), winner of last term’s Queen’s Plate S., makes his 4-year-old debut. The dark bay, trained by Richard Baltas, was last seen finishing third as the even-money favorite in the second leg of Canada’s Triple Crown in the Prince of Wales S. at Fort Erie last July. He has been working bullets for his return, and graduated impressively in his lone prior try on grass at Santa Anita last April. TJCIS PPs

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Jersey-Bred Valedictorian Takes On Talented Field In Eatontown Stakes

In a turf race that features two horses sired in Ireland, one in Great Britain, three from Chad Brown's powerhouse stable and one trained by Todd Pletcher, Kelly Breen will take his best shot with his classy Jersey-bred Valedictorian.

Monmouth Park's leading trainer says it's what she does and has always done – take on top-notch grass distaffers almost every time she races.

With Breen's hope that she may be the lone speed, Valedictorian will look to get back on track in Saturday's $150,000 Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes, the feature on Monmouth Park's 14-race card. She won the race a year ago, one of 12 career victories that have helped her to $737,115 in lifetime earnings.

“I think it's pretty neat having a Jersey-bred to run against all these good mares,” Breen said. “But if she happened to be running as good as she has in the past and she was from Oshkosh I'd still be proud of her.”

Breen will look to get the 6-year-old daughter of Temple City jumpstarted after an 0-for-5 start to her 2020 campaign, with only a pair of third-place finishes to show for it. But three of those starts have been against graded stakes company, including the Grade 1 Just A Game at Belmont Park on June 27.

In her most recent start, the Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth, she faded to sixth after setting the pace for a good portion of the nine-furlong grass feature. The Eatontown is at a mile and sixteenth.

“There were no easy spots to bring her back this year,” said Breen, who is looking for his third Monmouth Park training title after topping the track's standings in 2005 and 2006. “There were just no spots out there to maybe get her an easy win. So she keeps going up against the best of the best.

“Yes, it's been frustrating but she is still running and her numbers are still good and she's doing well. She looks great. It's just been a lot of tough spots.”

The Eatontown looks to be another tough spot, with the Brown-trained Nay Lady Nay back after winning the Matchmaker on July 18. Tapit Today, also trained by Brown, was fourth in that same race, beaten just a length and three-quarters. His third starter be Noor Sahara, who will be making her third start in the United States after racing in France.

Pletcher, meanwhile, will be represented by Valiance, who is 2-for-2 on Monmouth Park's turf course and 4-for-4 at a mile and a sixteenth during her six-race career.

There's a field of eight entered as well as two main track only alternates.

“We'll see what happens with the weather but I think we could be the speed of the race,” said Breen. “Everything about this race will be helpful to her – the mile and a sixteenth, being back on her home track, which she loves, the chance she could be the speed. All of it. And she is doing well.”

Owned by Epic Racing, Valedictorian shows a 12-6-6 line from 35 career starts. She is 4-for-6 on Monmouth's turf course and 5-for-12 at a mile and a sixteenth.

If the weather has an impact on the race, Breen said it won't affect his mare.

“She ran well on a soft, yielding turf course and if he comes off she has run well in the mud,” Breen said. “She can do it all.”

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