NEWS
Lu Ravi defeats Silverbulletday a second time
Posted: Saturday, July 29, 2000
Sincerely prevails in the Delaware Oaks, Lu Ravi wins the Delaware Handicap, and Three Wonders takes the Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes
Before the $600,900 Delaware Handicap (G3) at Delaware Park on July 23, the story was Silverbulletday and her attempt to become the all-time leading money-winning female in North America.
Delaware H. (G3)
Delaware Park, July 23, $600,900, 11/4 miles, fast, 2:02.21
1-LU RAVI, m. 5, A.P. Indy-At the Half, by Seeking the Gold.
2-Tap to Music, m. 5, Pleasant Tap-Nuryette, by Nureyev.
3-Silverbulletday, f. 4, Silver Deputy-Rokeby Rose, by Tom Rolfe.
Even though Lu Ravi had beaten Silverbulletday 19 days earlier in the Molly Pitcher Breeders' Cup Handicap (G2) at Monmouth Park, she was the "other" filly in the race.
Even though Tap to Music had won last year's DelCap, all the attention was on Silverbulletday. Even though Silverbulletday had won only one of her last six races, she was the 9-to-10 favorite at post time.
Reputations are earned over time, and Silverbulletday earned hers over a yearlong period in which she won 14 of 16 races. Times have changed.
Lu Ravi and Pat Day led from the start. Fractions in the 1 1/4-mile race were moderate-:24.05, :48.12, and 1:12.15 through the first six furlongs. "For a horse like her, that's trotting-horse time," said Lu Ravi's trainer, Carl Bowman.
Lu Ravi was never ahead by much, but she was always ahead. Silverbulletday and Shane Sellers came to Lu Ravi after six furlongs. The Silverbulletday of last summer would have gone right on by. The Silverbulletday of this summer could not keep up. "I just didn't have enough horse to go with (Lu Ravi)," Sellers said.
Lu Ravi again established a clear lead. Tap to Music, trapped for much of the race, finally got clear and took up the chase in the stretch. It was way too late. With Day just sort of sitting there, Lu Ravi won by a measured length. Tap to Music was second, two lengths in front of Silverbulletday. The other five fillies and mares in the DelCap were never really in the race.
Lu Ravi, second choice at 2.20-to-1, won for the tenth time in 21 starts. The $360,000 first-place money from the DelCap increased her earnings to $1,542,581. She ran the distance in 2:02.21. The five-year-old mare visited Delaware Park two years ago but had to settle for second in the Delaware Oaks. There was no settling this time.
"I try to never revisit a loss, because if you do, you waste a lot of energy thinking about what you did wrong," Bowman said. "The only thing I want to do is train them better. I would like to have won the Oaks, but I can tell you I'm much happier winning a race with the great prestige of the Delaware Handicap."
Instead of going back to his Churchill Downs base after the Molly Pitcher on July 4, Bowman sent Lu Ravi to Delaware Park.
Owner Yoshio Fujita purchased Lu Ravi as a weanling from Kentucky breeder Wayne G. Lyster III. By A.P. Indy out of the Seeking the Gold mare At the Half, whom Bowman had trained for Lyster to win the Colleen Stakes at Monmouth, Lu Ravi had been compromised by injuries in her first three years.
Lu Ravi had a filling in a knee as a two-year-old. At three, she had what Bowman described as a severe quarter crack. At four, she tore a ligament and strained a deep flexor tendon. Now, finally, Lu Ravi is completely healthy.
Lu Ravi is just 1-for-5 at Churchill, her home track. Bowman said she will be trying for the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) there on November 4. There, she most likely will meet defending older female champion Beautiful Pleasure and Heritage
of Gold, who beat Lu Ravi by just a total of 2 1/2 lengths in the Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) and Oaklawn Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3) this past spring.
Day, who two races earlier had won the $250,900 Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes (G3) on Three Wonders, won the DelCap last year with Tap to Music. He changed horses but ended up in the same winner's circle.
"We've had some wonderful days here at Delaware Park," he said. "I appreciate the opportunity people have given us to come here and to ride nice horses in these major races.
"It's the epitome of a jockey's life. We all work hard hoping that one day we would receive these opportunities, and I've certainly received a bunch of them."
Fujita, who is in the import and export business in Japan, bought three horses at the Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings before traveling to Delaware Park to see his stable star. He has 25 horses in the United States and 25 more in Japan.
And he has Lu Ravi, a mare who came into the DelCap as one of the "other" horses and left as "the" horse.
Silverbullet day's third-place finish earned her $66,000 and raised her career total to 3,093,207. Mike Pegram's four-year-old filly, who was the champion two-year-old filly in 1998 and last year's champion three-year-old filly, is pursuing the North American mark of Serena's Song, who earned $3,283,388 in three years of racing.
Three Wonders's Kent
In the Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes, Day stalked the pace of Field Cat through the first mile, took command inside the furlong pole, and drew clear for a 1 1/4-length victory over the pacesetter. Dawn of the Condor finished third, 2 3/4 lengths farther back, while 5-to-2 favorite Polish Miner trailed early and passed tired horses to finish fifth in a field of eight three-year-olds.
Kent Breeders' Cup S. (G3)
Delaware Park, July 23, $250,900, 11/8 miles, turf, firm, 1:48.95
1-THREE WONDERS, c. 3, Storm Cat-Wood of Binn, by Woodman.
2-Field Cat, c. 3, Metfield-Sandy's Storm, by Storm Cat.
3-Dawn of the Condor, c. 3, Twining-Dawn's Flame, by *Grey Dawn II.
Sent off at 6.20-to-1, Three Wonders ran the Kent's 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.95 on firm turf in winning his first stakes race. Owned by Mark H. Stanley and trained by Kentucky-based W. Elliott Walden, the Storm Cat colt collected the $150,000 first-place purse in the Kent and more than doubled his career earnings to $213,185.
Sincerely wins Oaks
Every day at every racetrack, jockeys must make difficult decisions. Before the five three-year-old fillies even came out of the starting gate for the Delaware Oaks Stakes (G3) on July 22, Michael McCarthy understood his dilemma. There were no secrets in the race, not to McCarthy or anyone else.
Delaware Oaks (G3)
Delaware Park, July 22, $250,000, 11/16 miles, fast, 1:43.83
1-SINCERELY, f. 3, Meadowlake-Up Sail, by Herculean.
2-Trip, f. 3, Lord At War (Arg)-Tour, by Forty Niner.
3-Valleydar, f. 3, Valley Crossing-B in Charge, by Nureyev.
Valleydar, ridden by Robert Colton, would be the only speed. McCarthy, riding Sincerely, was on a filly with tactical speed. Six weeks before, the same two fillies had hooked up in the Susan's Girl Stakes at Delaware Park and Valleydar had gotten an easy, clear lead and held off the late charge of Sincerely.
So, McCarthy believed he just had to put pressure on the other filly earlier and the race should be his. If it was a match race, that would have been true. There was, however, the matter of Claiborne Farm's Iowa Oaks winner Trip, the 17-to-10 favorite. If the two Delaware Park-based fillies went at it a little too hard, a little too soon, Trip surely could run by them both.
McCarthy has been leading rider at Delaware Park for four straight years. Unless he gets hurt, he is a lock for a fifth consecutive title. He knows his way around the track.
He never let Valleydar get more than a length in front of Sincerely. He gradually moved up to challenge near the three-eighths pole, got the lead at the eighth pole, and had just enough to hold off the fast-closing Trip by three-quarters of a length. Valleydar was third, 11Ú4 lengths behind Trip, followed by Well Dressed (who deserved better after bobbling at the start) and Lady Melesi.
The whole field was separated by less than three lengths at the finish. The winning ride had to be judged perfectly, and it was.
"Last time, I tried to settle her," McCarthy said. "Unfortunately, we gave Valleydar an easy lead in that race and I gave my filly a little too much to do. ... (In the Oaks), I moved when I had to and went to her early. I did what I thought was the right thing in putting (Valleydar) away early and then hope we did not get beat at the finish.''
McCarthy has won so many races at Delaware Park, but like so many dominating jockeys at the smaller tracks, he has not always been on the best horses in the track's signature races. This time he was, and Sincerely gave him his first Delaware Oaks victory.
Sincerely covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.83 on a fast track. The $150,000 winner's share nearly doubled her career earnings to $302,100. The bay daughter of Meadowlake out of the Herculean mare Up Sail now has six wins and three seconds in 11 career starts for owner R. Larry Johnson.
Sincerely has won 3-of-4 starts since trainer Graham Motion put blinkers on her.
"Since we put the blinkers on, she has been a different filly," Motion said. "All winter my help were trying to get me to put blinkers on her. But I kept resisting doing it.''
Dick Jerardi is a Thoroughbred Times correspondent.
