On Monday, trainer Dallas Stewart welcomed his first grandchild into the world, and just a few short days later, Henry Lane Stewart and family watched from afar as Valene Farms' Unified Report would score yet another Louisiana Champions Day win for grandpa.
Sent off as the .70-1 favorite in the $100,000 Juvenile, the sophomore son of Unified, tracked the pace set by the embattled Grunt and Charco through contested fractions of :21.76 and :45.63. Four-wide on the turn for home, he battled briefly with eventual third place finisher Charco mid-stretch before putting that rival away. Unified Report led into the deep stretch, and held safe of the late closing 1.80-1 second choice, the maiden Bron and Brow, stopping the timer in 1:10.55.
“Truly it all goes back to thanking Mr. Murray (owner Valene),” Hernandez said. “Year after year, he just keeps finding these really good Louisiana-breds. I think this is like the third or fourth year in a row we've won one of these 2-year-old (stakes) races. He (Unified Report) looked like he was the best horse in the race and I just did my job, give him the cleanest trip we could. He's a young horse, but he was two for two (coming in) so he's got a little experience behind him. There were for of them in front, so I just let him find his rhythm, I got him in the clear and off he went. What really impressed me today was the way he galloped out. He hit the wire and kind of stepped away from those horses again, so he kind of shows you that he wants to stretch out and go to two turns.”
With the win, Unified Report remained perfect from three starts, increasing his bankroll to $154,720 in the process.
Bron and Brow, who finished third at Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., in his career debut, added blinkers for the Juvenile, and after a difficult trip with some traffic trouble, he too stamped himself as a youngster to watch.
“It was a little troubled trip for me,” jockey Deshawn Parker admitted. “He was trying to run and had nowhere to go for a while. So once I came out of the turn, I tried to dig him out. But it was real trouble. Trouble. He's a maiden but he won't be a maiden much longer.”
“We had a horrible trip,” assistant trainer David Carroll added. “He was loaded the whole way, had to check hard off heels, then had to wait for room. He closed fast. To me, he was much the best horse in the race. He's a talented colt and we look forward to running him back. That's racing.”
A longtime supporter of Louisiana racing, Murray Valene was thrilled with his colt's performance.
“We had an undefeated filly (Big Time) win for us on this day last year, and this year it was the colt (Unified Report),” Valene said. “I want to thank Dallas Stewart and his team for doing such a great job. This colt looks like he wants to go longer and he might have the talent to do it successfully.”
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