Surprisingly, winner of the Endeavour Stakes (G3) at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 4, is to return to the Oldsmar, Florida track next Saturday for the $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares going 1 1/8 miles on the turf, trainer Shug McGaughey said.
The Hillsborough is one of five stakes, four of them graded, on the March 11 card highlighted by the 43rd edition of the $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby (G3) for Triple Crown candidates. The Tampa Bay Derby, run at 1 1/16 miles, is a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifier, with the first five finishers earning points on a 50-20-15-10-5 scale toward eligibility for the Louisville classic May 6 at Churchill Downs.
Trainer Todd Pletcher, who won the Sam F. Davis Stakes (G3) with Litigate on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs, is expected to send Tapit Trice for the race after his eight-length score on Feb. 4 at Gulfstream Park in an allowance/optional claiming contest.
Other Oldsmar oval stakes next Saturday include the $200,000 Florida Oaks (G3) for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles on turf; the $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger (G3) for horses 4-years-old-and-upward going 1 1/16 miles on turf; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf.
The latest in a long line of McGaughey-trained Phipps Stable homebred stakes winners, Surprisingly ran down Argentine-bred Scotish Star by a neck in the Endeavour under jockey Paco Lopez.
Surpisingly, whose best previous stakes performance was a second on Dec. 26 at Gulfstream Park in the Tropical Park Oaks, could again face Pletcher-trained Scotish Star and third-place Endeavour finisher Marketsegmentation, trained by Chad Brown, in the Hillsborough, which is a sixteenth of a mile farther than the Endeavour.
While Brown (five) and Pletcher (four) have combined for nine Hillsborough triumphs, McGaughey will be seeking his first.
“I'm looking forward to next Saturday,” said McGaughey, who has breezed Surprisingly four furlongs on two occasions at his Payson Park Training Center base in Indiantown, Florida since the Endeavour. “I think this is a step up for her, but she has kind of exceeded our expectations and seems to be training well.”
In the Hillsborough, Surprisingly will bid to become the eighth horse to win the Endeavour and the Hillsborough in the same year. Three of those dual winners already were, or became, Eclipse Award champions (2016 Endeavour and Hillsborough winner Tepin, a Hall of Fame member, won Eclipse Awards as champion turf female in 2015 and 2016).
McGaughey believes Suprisingly will benefit from the extra distance, but isn't ready to compare her yet to any of the horses that have won both Tampa Bay Downs turf stakes.
She does seem to be improving with each start and is 4-for-7 with one second.
“I think having time off last fall helped her,” he said. “If she keeps moving forward, she can have a good year.”
McGaughey's success with Phipps family homebreds goes back decades, and their victory with patriarch Ogden Phipps's unbeaten filly Personal Ensign in the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs is the stuff of legends.
Last year alone, horses with Phipps bloodlines won 11 Grade 1 races and 40 graded stakes in the United States and Canada, a feat that was accomplished by 24 different horses from 11 different Phipps equine families.
Surprisingly is a member of the first crop of foals by Claiborne Farm resident sire Mastery, who entered stud in 2018 with a 4-for-4 lifetime record after suffering a condylar fracture past the wire of the 2017 San Felipe Stakes (G2). McGaughey trained Surprisingly's dam Vagabond, a daughter of Arch who was 2-for-12 but would have been better except for physical problems, the conditioner believes.
Go back further to discover Surprisingly's third dam, Matlacha Pass, by Seeking the Gold, produced Grade 1 winners Point of Entry (by Dynaformer) and Pine Island (Arch), and Matlacha Pass's dam Our Country Place (Pleasant Colony) also produced 2005 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) winner Pleasant Home (Seeking the Gold), and you begin to appreciate the benefits of a scientific approach to breeding stakes-winning Thoroughbreds.
The post ‘She Has Kind Of Exceeded Our Expectations’: Phipps Stable’s Surprisingly Looks To Complete Tampa Bay Graded Double In Hillsborough appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
