Looking to make amends for a brave first career defeat when first up for nearly 14 months in the GII Ballston Spa S. at Saratoga Aug. 27, Sheep Pond Partners' Lady Eli made a successful return to the winner's circle with a much-the-best victory in Saturday's GI Flower Bowl Invitational S., earning herself a spot in the field in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Santa Anita in a months' time.
Winner of the 2014 GI Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita, Lady Eli was well on her way to last year's championship meeting, with three wins from three starts to begin the campaign, including a facile defeat of Itsonlyactingdad (Giant's Causeway) in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational last July. But bad luck intervened, as Lady Eli stepped on a nail on her way back to the barn and developed laminitis in both front feet.
Uncertain about a return to the races, connections took a wait-and-see approach, but by December, Lady Eli had returned to light training at Palm Meadows. She managed to turn in a pair of official works over the winter in South Florida, but went missing from the worktab for about two months and Chad Brown began to get serious again in May, with a start at Saratoga mooted as a possibility. What once appeared unlikely became reality when Lady Eli made it back to the races on the Travers S. undercard, and she looked on her way to a fairy-tale win in the Ballston Spa, only to relinquish her theretofore perfect record at the hands of longshot Strike Charmer (Smart Strike), posting a career-best Beyer (101) in the process.
Favored to go one better, Lady Eli was in the early vanguard and raced with some cover into the first turn before eventually facing the breeze three wide as Sentiero Italia set a modest pace in advance of Itsactingdad. Perhaps more effective in a truly run affair, Lady Eli nevertheless maintained a three-wide perch while handy enough and was poised with Irad Ortiz Jr. hard against her as they approached the exit to the second turn. Asked to quicken three-sixteenths of a mile from home, Lady Eli called upon her superior turn of foot to charge past Sentiero Italia and on to an easy score. Sea Calisi, last-out winner of the GI Beverly D. S., followed the move of her stablemate for most of the race but could not match her acceleration and settled for third.
“There were a lot of different scenarios, some extremely scary, and the best case was we'd be back heading to the Breeders' Cup race as one of the favorites, and here we are,” said trainer Chad Brown, unsaddling the Flower Bowl winner for the third straight year (Stephanie's Kitten, 2014, 2015). “It couldn't happen to a more deserving horse, for her to overcome all this.”
Lady Eli returned to scales to the approval of those on hand.
“It's not easy [to get a Belmont ovation],” Brown commented. “At Belmont, this has been my home course the last few years. Particularly in the fall, we have a large stable here, but I never heard have an ovation like that going back to the winner's circle. She's been training outstanding. She couldn't possibly work any better. She ran a lifetime number for me in her first start back off that long of a layoff. I'm expecting another good number today. I think she's better than ever. It takes such a rare horse to overcome what she has and to make it all the way back to center stage at the Breeders' Cup. I think she's one of the all-time great turf mares, I really believe that.”
Pedigree Notes:
A half-sister to this breeder's 2011 GIII Regret S. winner Bizzy Caroline (Afleet Alex), Lady Eli is also a half-sister to the 2-year-old colt Electro (Ghostzapper), a $400,000 Keeneland September yearling acquisition by Juddmonte Farms, who most recently breezed a half-mile in :47.40 (4/14) at Los Alamitos Oct. 6. Sacre Coeur did not produce foals in each of the last two seasons and was among the first book of mares to visit Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) in 2016. Lady Eli's female family includes 1995 GI Kentucky Derby runner-up Tejano Run and the Nureyev sire Alwuhush. Lady Eli is consigned to the upcoming Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale as hip 466 through John Sikura's Hill 'n' Dale Sales Agency.
Saturday, Belmont Park
FLOWER BOWL S.-GI, $500,000, BEL, 10-8, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/4mT, 1:59.85, fm.
1–LADY ELI, 121, f, 4, 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.. $300,000. Lifetime
Record: 8-7-1-0, $1,829,800. *1/2 to Bizzy Caroline (Afleet
Alex), MGSW, $347,935. Werk Nick Rating: A++.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”hillndale-hip466-keenov”][bullet ad=”bradley-pinhook”][bullet ad=”kbif-g1″]2–Sentiero Italia, 119, f, 4, Medaglia d'Oro–Golden Way (Ire),
by Cadeaux Genereux (GB). O-Godolphin Racing LLC; B-Darley
(KY); T-Kiaran P. McLaughlin. $100,000.
3–Sea Calisi (Fr), 123, f, 4, Youmzain (Ire)–Triclaria (Ger), by
Surumu (Ger). O-Martin S. Schwartz; B-Derek Bloodstock (FR);
T-Chad C. Brown. $50,000.
Margins: 3/4, 1 1/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 0.85, 4.60, 3.10.
Also Ran: Strike Charmer, Itsonlyactingdad, Ame Bleue (GB).
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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