Lady Eli Imperious in Belmont Oaks
Updated: July 8, 2015 at 10:29 am
Though she isn’t a Triple Crown winner or anything like that, Sheep Pond Partners’s Lady Eli (Divine Park) is one thing that American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) is not. With a breathtaking victory from off the pace in Saturday’s GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S., the $160,000 Keeneland April graduate remained perfect in six career trips to the post and entered the conversation as one of the best 3-year-old turf fillies in recent memory while earning an automatic bid into the GI Breeders’ Cup F/M Turf later in the year. Longshot Itsonlyactingdad (Giant’s Causeway) spiced up the exacta, while the Coolmore contingent’s Outstanding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was third. “The term ‘breathes different air’ gets thrown around a lot when someone has a very good horse, and I’ve been lucky to have some great turf fillies and mares, but this one ‘breathes different air’ for sure,” beamed trainer Chad Brown, who won the inaugural running of this race last year with Minorette (Smart Strike). “Not only the ones I’ve had in my career, but the best horses I have been around, she’s way up there, probably at the top of the list. She certainly has the most devastating turn of foot I’ve ever worked around.”
Saturday, Belmont Park
BELMONT OAKS INVITATIONAL S.-GI, $1,000,000, BEL, 7-4, 3yo, f, 1 1/4mT, 1:59.27, fm.
1–LADY ELI, 121, f, 3, by Divine Park
1st Dam: Sacre Coeur, by Saint Ballado
2nd Dam: Kazadancoa (Fr), by Green Dancer
3rd Dam: Khazaeen, by Charlottesville (GB)
($160,000 Ylg ’13 KEESEP; $160,000 2yo ’14
KEEAPR). O-Sheep Pond Partners; B-Runnymede
Farm Inc. & Catesby W. Clay (KY); T-Chad C. Brown;
J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $535,000. Lifetime Record: 6-6-0-0,
$1,449,800. *1/2 to Bizzy Caroline (Afleet Alex),
MGSW, $347,935. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for the
eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Itsonlyactingdad, 121, f, 3, Giant’s Causeway–Indy
Business, by A.P. Indy. ($270,000 Ylg ’13 FTSAUG).
O-Starlight Racing; B-Bluegrass Hall, LLC (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher. $185,000.
3–Outstanding (Ire), 121, f, 3, Galileo (Ire)—
Absolutelyfabulous (Ire), by Mozart (Ire). O-Mrs. John
Magnier, Michael Tabor & Derrick Smith;
B-Absolutelyfabulous Syndicate (Ire); T-Aidan P.
O’Brien. $100,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, 3/4, NO. Odds: 0.80, 35.25, 5.60.
Also Ran: Sentiero Italia, Strict Compliance, Consumer Credit, Sharla Rae, Miss Chatelaine, Pine Needles, Spanish Queen, Olorda (Ger), Lady Zuzu, Daring Duchess, Gypsy Judy.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
Up by a nose in a Saratoga special weight last August, Lady Eli stepped forward to add this venue’s GIII Miss Grillo S. a month later, and justified favoritism with a clear-cut victory over the likes of GISW Sunset Glow (Exchange Rate); next-out G3 Nell Gyn S. heroine Osaila (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}); and recent GIII Senorita S. victoress Prize Exhibit (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) in Santa Anita’s GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf Oct. 31. Those accomplishments put her in the running for an Eclipse Award, but GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies upsetter Take Charge Brandi (Giant’s Causeway) added two more high-profile wins before the end of the season to secure that title.
An easy winner yet again over G1 Coronation S. fourth Miss Temple City (Temple City) in Keeneland’s GIIII Appalachian S. Apr. 12, Lady Eli prepped for this with a score in the nine-panel Wonder Again S. May 31, winning with an ease that belied her half-length margin of victory. The 10-panel distance was the biggest question mark for the heavy favorite here, but the doubters had their answer in just under two minutes.
Away in good order, Lady Eli settled in midpack early as Lady Zuzu (Dynaformer) put up blazing splits of :22.93 and :47.23. A patient Irad Ortiz, Jr. finally gave the chalk her cue leaving the home bend, and she inhaled foes with a seven or eight-wide bid to show off her jaw-dropping kick once more.
According to Trakus data, only dead-heat fourth Sentiero Italia (Medaglia d’Oro) covered more ground than the winner. Lady Eli traveled 35 feet (just over four lengths) more than runner-up Itsonlyactingdad.
“I had a perfect trip, no complaints,” offered Ortiz. “We talked about the race in the morning, don’t get in too much trouble in the race. We expected to have the best horse in the race, so that’s why we saved ground the first half of the race, but after that, I know nobody noticed us, so I just took her out and looked behind and before the half-mile I knew I had a lot of horse. Nobody put pressure on me and she took off.”
Of what might be next for the superstar, Brown said, “We’ll have to take a look at [the schedule]. We have the [Aug. 24 GII] Lake Placid at Saratoga if we wanted to keep her against straight 3-year-old fillies, we also have the [GI] Beverly D. [S. at Arlington] if we want to look at bigger goals and run her against older fillies and mares. We could also wait until the Breeders’ Cup [to run her against older] because we have the [GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup] right at Keeneland, where the Breeders’ Cup is being held. Her next major is the Queen Elizabeth. How we get there, we’ll have to talk about it.”
For Steve Sherack’s recent feature on Sheep Pond Partners, click here.