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Frank’s Rockette Just Misses Track Record In Victory Ride

Frank's Rockette fended off longshot Reagan's Edge by a head in an exhilarating stretch-drive finish in the Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride to start the stakes action on a packed Runhappy Met Mile Day at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

The 18th running of the Victory Ride, contested at 6 1/2 furlongs on a fast main track for 3-year-old fillies, was carded as Race 3 on the Independence Day card.

Frank Fletcher Racing's Frank's Rockette, last year's runner-up in the Grade 1 Frizette over this track, went off as the 2-5 favorite by virtue of some strong sprint performances early in her sophomore year. Ridden again by Hall of Famer John Velazquez, who was aboard her for the Frizette and her winning 2020 debut at Gulfstream Park, the daughter of Into Mischief broke well from the rail and allowed Reagan's Edge to set the tempo in the very early stages of the race.

Reagan's Edge, whose only wins came in a maiden race at Indiana Grand and an off-the-turf affair at Churchill Downs in her most recent outing, proved to be a stubborn foe at 13-1. She broke the sharpest of all under Jose Lezcano, and after briefly controlling the early lead ceded it to Frank's Rockette, who moved up the inside to gain control.

Trainer Chad Brown's Center Aisle, meanwhile, assumed a stalking position just to the outside of the top two, and the three fillies proceeded to run in carousel fashion around the racetrack. After a leisurely opening quarter-mile in 23.11 seconds, the pace picked up considerably with Frank's Rockette posting a half in 45.52, as the top trio continued to roll along around the turn.

In the stretch, Frank's Rockette's maintained the edge to the inside, with Center Aisle to the outside, and Reagan's Edge battling on between horses. In the final sixteenth, an intransigent Reagan's Edge was all out, but Frank's Rockette hit the wire in 1:14.47, just a hundredth of a second off the track record recorded by Bear Fan in June 2004.

Reagan's Edge bested Center Aisle by three-quarters of a length for second. Up in Smoke and Miss Peppina completed the order of finish.

“She broke well enough, but not as quick as I thought she would,” Velazquez said. “Little by little, she got into the battle and I let her do what she wanted to do. At the end, she put in a really good fight. At the wire, I thought I had it. But right before the wire, I wasn't sure we were going to hold on.”

With the victory, Frank's Rockette improved her lifetime record to 4-4-0 from eight starts and increased her earnings to $413,603. She returned $2.90 on a $2 win wager.

“When you looked at the race on paper, it looked like we'd be the clear speed and probably be a length or two in front on the backside,” said Frank Rockette's Hall of Fame trainer, Bill Mott. “There was a horse hanging right with her. She didn't break quite as sharp as I've seen her in the past, but she was able to open up a bit when she turned for home and had enough courage to hold them off. She had to work at it a little bit. It was not an easy win.”

While Mott added another graded stakes tally to his illustrious resume, he denied Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Reagan's Edge, her first. Despite the near miss, DeVaux was very pleased with the effort of her tenacious filly.

“She's just got a lot of fight in her. It's so nice to have a horse like this in the barn that goes out and just tries every time we ask her,” DeVaux said. “She just played the break. In her maiden, she broke on top and went with it. Jose [Lezcano] did the right thing. He didn't take it away from her, he didn't try to get her to do something else. I'm happy with him, he made a really good decision.”

Mott said he could target the Grade 1, $300,000 Longines Test on August 8 at Saratoga Race Course as Frank's Rockette looks to break through at racing's highest level. In 2019, Frank's Rockette finished second in the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga before playing bridesmaid again in the Frizette.

“That's what I've had my eyes on,” Mott said of the Test. “It's a big challenge. The Test is a great race. We've won it a couple of times and it's a very important race for 3-year-old fillies. If she's doing well, I'd like to give her a try in there.”

Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont Park with a 10-race card. First post is 1:15 p.m. Eastern.

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Monomoy Girl Works At Belmont In Advance Of July 11 Ruffian

Michael Dubb, Monomoy Stables, The Elkstone Group, and Bethlehem Stables' multiple Grade 1-winnner Monomoy Girl breezed a half-mile in company in 49.30 seconds at 8:45 a.m. Saturday on a muddy Belmont Park main track under Hall of Fame rider Javier Castellano in preparation for the Grade 2, $150,000 Ruffian, a one-turn mile, at Belmont in Elmont, N.Y., on July 11.

Trained by Brad Cox, the 5-year-old Tapizar mare worked in company with multiple stakes winner A Bit of Both through splits of 12.3, 24.4 and out in 1:02.1.

Castellano said he enjoyed his cameo appearance aboard Monomoy Girl while filling in for regular pilot Florent Geroux, who will be at Belmont next weekend to ride the chestnut in the Ruffian.

“Today it was a very straightforward work, a half-mile from the half-mile pole with another horse inside. I was outside tracking the other horse,” said Castellano. “She handled the track well. Even at the beginning when we started galloping she was splashing nice and smooth in a good rhythm, good balance and good mind. These good types of horses, they do that.”

Monomoy Girl arrived at Belmont Park on Wednesday, alongside Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile contender Warrior's Charge, to prepare for her first graded race since capturing the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Distaff in November 2018.

That win capped an Eclipse Award-winning season for Monomoy Girl which included Grade 1 victories in the Ashland at Keeneland, Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs, Acorn at Belmont Park and the Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga. The talented filly crossed the wire first – a neck in front of Midnight Bisou – in the Grade 1 Cotillion at Parx but was disqualified and placed second as the only blemish on her 3-year-old filly champion campaign.

Monomoy Girl, who missed the entirety of her 4-year-old season, was sent to WinStar Farm last spring after a mild case of colic and suffered an injury to her hamstring last fall when preparing for a potential comeback.

The champion chestnut returned to action on May 16 with a 2 3/4-length win in an optional-claiming tilt contested on a sloppy Churchill Downs main track, earning an 85 Beyer Speed Figure.

Bred in Kentucky by FPF LLC and Highfield Ranch, Monomoy Girl is out of the Henny Hughes mare Drumette. A $100,000 purchase at the 2016 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, she boasts a record of 12-10-2-0 with purse earnings in excess of $3 million.

The Grade 2 Ruffian is the final graded stakes of the 25-day Belmont spring/summer meet. Closing weekend will also include the $80,000 River Memories, a 1 1/2-mile stamina test on the turf for older fillies and mares, on Closing Day Sunday, July 12, before live racing shifts to Saratoga Race Course for the 40-day summer meet which runs from Thursday, July 16 through Labor Day, September 7.

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Serpentine, Love Continue O’Brien’s Dominance Of Oaks, Derby At Epsom

Aidan O'Brien scored his third Group 1 Oaks-Derby double on Saturday at Epsom Downs in the United Kingdom, with Serpentine giving him a record eighth triumph in the Investec Epsom Derby shortly after Love won the Investec Epsom Oaks for the Wizard of Ballydoyle's eighth victory in that classic as well.

Both winners of the mile and one-half British classics campaign for Coolmore partners Michael Tabor, Mrs. John Magnier and Derrick Smith and both were sired by Galileo, who gave O'Brien his first Epsom Derby win in 2001. Serpentine became Galileo's fifth winner of the Epsom Derby.

O'Brien previously won the Oaks and Derby in the same year in 2001 and 2012. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the races were delayed from their traditional date on the calendar and, in another departure from tradition, run on the same afternoon in front of an empty grandstand.

Love, ridden by Ryan Moore, crushed her seven opponents as the favorite, coming from off the pace to win by nine lengths over O'Brien stablemate Ennistymon (also by Galileo). Frankly Darling, the Group 2 Ribblesdale winner at Royal Ascot on June 16 for John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, finished third.

Love, now five for nine, was coming off a victory in the Group 1 One Thousand Guineas at Newmarket on June 7. The Irish-bred Oaks winner was produced from the Pivotal mare, Pikaboo.

Love winning the Investec Oaks under Ryan Moore

Serpentine, one of six runners for O'Brien in the 16-horse Derby field, was a 25-1 outsider whose only previous win came in a June 27 maiden race at the Curragh in his native Ireland – just one week before the Derby.

Ridden by Emmet McNamara, Serpentine darted straight to the lead in a role some suspected as a pacemaker, then opened an insurmountable advantage that was whittled down to six lengths at the winning post.

Andrew Balding-trained Khalifa Sat finished second, with O'Brien-trained Amhran Na Bhfiann third and co-favorites Kameko and English King finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Serpentine was produced from Remember When, a Danehill Dancer mare out of Lagrian, herself the producer of Group 1 winners Dylan Thomas, Queen's Logic and Homecoming Queen.

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Fletcher Looking For Homebred Filly To ‘Rocket’ To Lead In Victory Gallop

In seven starts, owner Frank Fletcher said he has been impressed with what he's seen out of his homebred filly Frank's Rockette but is hoping she becomes a graded stakes winner in Saturday's Grade 3, $100,000 Victory Ride at 6 1/2-furlongs over the main track at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

“She's on the top of her game right now,” Fletcher said. “She's a small horse, but she's grown and gotten stronger. She ran very well in a couple of Grade 1 races last year as a 2-year-old and I've been pleased with each race.”

The Victory Ride, slated as Race 3 at 2:24 p.m. Eastern, is the first of five graded stakes on Saturday's Runhappy Met Mile Day card. The stakes-laden 11-race showcase is headlined by the Grade 1 Runhappy Met Mile, open to 3-year-olds and up and offering a berth in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in November at Keeneland; and also features the Grade 1, $400,000 Manhattan for 4-year-olds and up going 1 1/4-miles on turf; the Grade 2, $200,000 Suburban, a 10-furlong test for 4-year-olds and upward; and the Grade 3, $150,000 Poker, a one-mile turf test for older horses.

The Runhappy Met Mile will feature live on NBC from 5 – 6 p.m. Eastern with the entire Runhappy Met Mile Day card available on America's Day at the Races on FS1 beginning at 1 p.m. First post Saturday is 1:15 p.m.

Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Frank's Rockette has been favored in each of her career starts and has never finished worse than second. Although winless in both of her Grade 1 starts, which took place on the NYRA circuit in the Spinaway at Saratoga and the Frizette at Belmont Park, the Into Mischief bay filly has displayed top quality talent with her consistent record.

Frank's Rockette kicked off her career with an 8 3/4-length triumph at Churchill Downs en route to three placings against graded stakes company, including a second in the Grade 2 Adirondack at Saratoga.

Fletcher recalls watching her career debut noting that she displayed an almost too laid back demeanor in the paddock.

“I remember the first time I saw her running at Churchill Downs and watching them saddle her in the paddock,” Fletcher said. “She had her head down and it looked like she was going to sleep. I said to the assistant, 'Was she up all night last night?' She does the same thing every time, but as soon as she gets to the track she's focused and ready to run. She's got a great personality. She's real sweet and easy to be around but once she goes to the track, she's all business.”

With no other bona fide frontrunners in the Victory Ride field, Frank's Rockette is likely to lead the early charge. Fletcher said the early gate speed can be worrisome.

“She scares me sometimes,” Fletcher said. “She gets out there and runs so fast at the beginning that I get worried she's going to be done at the end. Every time, she seems to find a new gear and finishes up strong.”

Following a runner-up effort in the Frizette to Wicked Whisper to close out her juvenile campaign, Frank's Rockette returned to action in style making her 2020 bow a winning one in the Any Limit on February 22 at Gulfstream Park. Sent to post as the even-money favorite, she took command and strolled to a seven-length victory while producing a career-best 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

Frank's Rockette arrives at the Victory Ride off a 3 1/2-length win in an allowance optional claiming event going six furlongs at Churchill Downs, which came after finishing second in the Purple Martin at Oaklawn Park to Kimari, subsequent Group 1 Commonwealth Cup runner-up at Royal Ascot.

Fletcher, a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, who owns Fletcher Auto Group, said he was hoping to see his special filly get a stakes win at his home track.

“I really wanted to win that race because it was at my home track, but the horse that beat us that day looks like a really nice one,” Fletcher said.

Frank's Rockette is out of the graded stakes-winning Indian Charlie broodmare Rocket Twentyone, who won the Grade 3 Arlington-Washington Lassie as a 2-year-old and was trained by the late Tom Howard, whose wife Kathy serves as Fletcher's racing manager.

Howard said she sees a lot of similarities between Frank's Rockette and Rocket Twentyone.

“They look so much alike it's uncanny,” Howard said. “She's had foals before this one and I never saw any similarities, but this one was different. I remember watching her run in her first race and she did things just like her mother.”

Howard, a former jockey, has been acquainted with Mott for many years, having ridden horses for the trainer and relishes the opportunity to work with the horseman in a different role.

“Billy Mott is just a really good guy,” Howard said. “He's a true and solid individual. He was good to me back then and put me on some winners and he's still a good guy today.”

Fletcher names all of his horses to honor his longhaired German Shepherd named Rocket.

“I'm currently on Rocket number three,” Fletcher said, adding that his prior two dogs named Rocket each lived to be 11 years old. “I've probably had hundreds of horses over the years with the name 'Rocket'. Years ago, I had a nice one named Son of Rocket who ran third in the [2001] Arkansas Derby and won the Southwest and we had some fun with him. But this one's a filly, so now we have a Rockette.”

Listed as the 3-5 morning line favorite, Frank's Rockette will blast out of the inside post under Hall of Famer John Velazquez in the Victory Ride.

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