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Crazy Beautiful Gives McPeek Back-To-Back Gulfstream Park Oaks Triumphs

Phoenix Thoroughbred III's Crazy Beautiful rallied from last to score a convincing victory in Saturday's $200,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2), providing trainer Ken McPeek his second straight success in the 1 1/16-mile stakes for 3-year-old fillies at the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track.

The Gulfstream Oaks was one of 10 stakes on Saturday's program that was headlined by the $750,000 Curlin Florida Derby (G1) presented by Hill 'n' Dale Farms at Xalapa. The Oaks is a Road to the Kentucky Oaks qualifying race that offered 170 points on a 100-40-20-10 scale.

Crazy Beautiful earned her way into the April 30 Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs by following in the hoofprints of McPeek-trained Swiss Skydiver, who captured last year's Gulfstream Oaks winner, who went on to beat the boys in the Preakness Stakes (G1) at Pimlico.

“We were here a year ago. I was really proud of that win,” McPeek said. “Maybe we can accomplish half as much this year.”

Crazy Beautiful, who finished second in the seven-furlong Davona Dale (G2) Feb. 27 in her 2021 debut, was rated in seventh and last as Con Lima, the 6-5 favorite ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., set the fractions of 24.16 and 48.69 seconds for the first half-mile while stalked by Bow Wow Girl and Pens Street. Millefeuille bad a bold move between horses leaving the backstretch and pulled alongside a tiring Con Lima on the turn into the homestretch before opening a clear lead at the top of the stretch. Crazy Beautiful, the 2-1 second choice ridden by Jose Ortiz who had steadily advanced into contention, was sent between horses to get a clear run in the stretch and kicked in powerfully to overtake Millefeuille.

“I just wanted to sit there and make sure she got into a good rhythm on the backstretch and she did. I saved some ground on the first turn and I saved some ground on the second turn,” said Ortiz following his third stakes victory of the afternoon. “Kenny told me that she was a nice filly, so I rode her with confidence.”

The daughter of Liam's Map scored by 2 ½ lengths while running 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.41.

“I thought Jose rode her perfect today. He got her in a nice rhythm. I told him, 'Don't be in a hurry. Don't force anything. Get her in a nice rhythm.' He did that,” McPeek said. “She was a little farther back than she's normally been, but she's got a lot of turn of foot.”

Millefeuille finished second, 1 ¾ lengths ahead of late-closing Competitive Speed. Con Lima finished fourth.

Crazy Beautiful had a productive 2020 campaign, during which she was graded stakes-placed twice, including a second-place finish behind Simply Ravishing, also a McPeek trainee, in the Alcibiades (G1) at Keeneland. Simply Ravishing, who was nominated to the Gulfstream Park Oaks, is scheduled to prep for the Kentucky Oaks in the Ashland (G1) at Keeneland April 3.

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Banner Day for Liam’s Map Continues in GP Oaks

Winless since last August, 'TDN Rising Star' Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) marked her return to the winner's circle in style, taking Saturday's GII Gulfstream Park Oaks. Sent off at 5-2 while searching for her first graded stakes victory, she was settled at the back of the compact field as 6-5 choice Con Lima showed the way through initial fractions of :24.16 and :48.69. Rallying from the back as the field compressed approaching the quarter pole, the Ken McPeek trainee strode through the center of the group and continued to gain momentum as Millefeuille took over from Con Lima at the quarter pole. Four-wide turning for home and with only Millefeuille to catch, Crazy Beautiful took over midstretch and kicked clear to give McPeek his second consecutive victory in the filly prep for the GI Kentucky Oaks. McPeek won last year's race with Swiss Skydiver, who went on to win the GI Preakness S.

A winner of her first two career starts at Ellis, including last summer's Rising Star performance in the seven-furlong Debutante S., the grey finished runner-up in Churchill's GIII Pocahontas S. followed by the GI Alcibiades S. at Keeneland before capping off the term with a sixth in the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. Shelved for the rest of the season, she returned with a second, beaten 6 1/2 lengths, by the high-flying front-runner Wolebodemeister (Bodemeister) in the Gulfstream Park Oak prep, the Feb. 27 GII Davona Dale S.

Pedigree Notes:
Crazy Beautiful is the fifth graded stakes winner for GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Liam's Map (Unbridled's Song), who will be represented by his fourth crop of racing age in 2021. Liam's Map also was represented by Sir Shackleton S. winner Basin and Churn and Burn, victorious in the GII Pan American S., earlier on the Florida Derby Day card.

Indian Burn, a half-sister to graded placed Christmas Away (Skip Away), produced her most recent live foal in 2019, a filly by Midnight Lute.

Saturday, Gulfstream Park
GULFSTREAM PARK OAKS-GII, $200,000, Gulfstream, 3-27, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:44.41, ft.
1–CRAZY BEAUTIFUL, 122, f, 3, by Liam's Map
1st Dam: Indian Burn (SW & GSP, $236,158), by Indian Charlie
2nd Dam: Christmas Affair, by Black Tie Affair (Ire)
3rd Dam: Anna Lisa Beth, by Topsider
'TDN Rising Star' 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($250,000 Ylg '19
FTKOCT). O-Phoenix Thoroughbred III; B-Carolyn R Vogel (KY);
T-Kenneth G. McPeek; J-Jose L. Ortiz. $121,520. Lifetime
Record: GISP, 7-3-3-0, $388,365. Werk Nick Rating: A.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Millefeuille, 122, f, 3, Curlin–Bandana, by War Front.
O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-William I. Mott. $39,200.
3–Competitive Speed, 122, f, 3, Competitive Edge–Shopped
Out, by Mineshaft. ($50,000 RNA Ylg '19 KEESEP; $5,000 2yo
'20 OBSOPN). O-John C. Minchello; B-White Fox Farm (KY);
T-Javier E. Gonzalez. $19,600.
Margins: 2 1/4, 1 3/4, HF. Odds: 2.00, 4.30, 18.10.
Also Ran: Con Lima, Pens Street, Bow Bow Girl, Len Lo Lady.
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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McPeek Looks for Back-to-Back GP Oaks Wins

Trainer Ken McPeek, who won last year's GII Gulfstream Park Oaks with 3-year-old filly champion Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil), will look to take a second straight renewal of the 1 1/16-mile race when he saddles Phoenix Thoroughbreds' Crazy Beautiful (Liam's Map) Saturday in Hallandale. The gray filly, the 5-2 morning-line favorite, was second in both the GIII Pocahontas S. and GI Darley Alcibiades S. last fall before ending her juvenile campaign with a sixth-place effort in the Nov. 6 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. She rallied from well back to finish second in her sophomore debut in the Feb. 27 GII Davona Dale S.

“She ran great here.” McPeek said of Crazy Beautiful's effort in the Davona Dale. “I think that she's training well enough that we should go right now.”

Juddmonte Farms homebred Millefeuille (Curlin) will be looking to rebound from a troubled seventh-place effort in the Davona Dale when she goes postward Saturday for trainer Bill Mott. The bay filly, 7-2 on the morning line, was second after setting the pace in the GII Demoiselle S. at Aqueduct last December. She lost all chance in the Davona Dale when shuffled back to near last approaching the stretch and comes into her second start of the year with a bullet four-furlong work in :48.60 (1/41) at Payson Park Mar. 19.

Con Lima (Commissioner) moves back to the main track after runner-up efforts over the Hallandale turf in the Jan. 30

GIII Sweetest Chant S. and Feb. 27 GIII Herecomesthebride S. She was second in pair of off-turf stakes last September and was a wire-to-wire winner over the turf in the Jan. 2 Ginger Brew S.

“It's something we've been thinking about for a while,” trainer Todd Pletcher said of the surface switch. “Being a graded-stakes and all–and she seems to like Gulfstream–we decided to give it a try. Her races on the turf have been very good, but she's been consistent on both surfaces.”

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Grade 3 Winner Lady Apple Retired, Will Be Bred To Quality Road

Phoenix Thoroughbreds' multiple graded stakes winner Lady Apple has been retired to the owner's broodmare band.

A visit to be covered by Lane's End's super sire Quality Road lies in the immediate future for the daughter of Curlin, who signed off her racing career with a third-place finish in the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic on Sunday.

A winner of six of her 19 starts, she banked over $1 million in prize money thanks largely to her four successes at Grade 3 level.

Raced in partnership with KatieRich Farm for the early part of her career, she got off the mark at the fifth time of asking with victory in a maiden special weight at Oaklawn Park. From there, the Steve Asmussen trainee didn't look back, winning her next two starts culminating in the G3 Fantasy Stakes. That success qualified her for the Kentucky Oaks where she ran a stormer to finish in third.

She returned to winning ways on her very next outing by taking the G3 Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows before again bouncing back from defeat to claim the Remington Park Oaks, another Grade 3. Arguably her best win was her last as she beat Grade 1 winners Serengeti Empress and Street Band to win the 2020 running of Houston Ladies Classic. Although that proved to be her final trip to the winners' circle she placed twice more in stakes races before her owners called time on her career on Monday.

“She has been a fantastic race mare for us and she'll be an excellent addition to our breeding operation,” said Phoenix Thoroughbreds CEO Amer Abdulaziz. “She has a top-class pedigree with a race record to match while the cross with Quality Road looks very exciting. We are seeing some excellent results from our breeding operation around the globe and adding horses such as Lady Apple can only add to that.”

By Curlin, Lady Apple is the highest-profile of 10 winners produced by her dam Miss Mary Apples. The 5-year-old is also from the same family as Kentucky Derby winner Affirmed and Grade 1 winner Senor Pete.

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