NEWS
Rightly So speeds away to Ballerina win
Posted: Saturday, August 28, 2010 5:04 PM
RIGHTLY SO
Alex Evers/NYRA photo
For video of the Ballerina Stakes, click here.
by Myra Lewyn
Zayat Stables’ Rightly So looked to be the early speed heading into the $250,000 Ballerina Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, and there was no catching the New York-bred filly after she seized control at the start of a dominant victory.
Sent off as the fourth wagering choice at 4.70-to-1 odds, Rightly So proved up to the top-level test following her front-running win in the seven-furlong Bed o’ Roses Handicap (G3) on July 5 at Belmont Park, her first victory this season from four previous starts, delighting trainer Tony Dutrow.
“It was just a fantastic performance today,” Dutrow said of Rightly So, who was chased throughout by runner-up Warbling, then shook free in the stretch to win by four lengths. “She's a filly who is capable of running fast the entire race. She outdid herself today. She's been an overachiever, and once again she raised her game to the top.”
Rightly So established a clear lead out of the starting gate and set quick fractions of :22.26, :44.80, and 1:09.29 through six furlongs before drawing off under a hand ride from Cornelio Velasquez.
“I had a lot of horse at the quarter pole, so she really ran a big one,” Velasquez said.
A possible start in the Breeders’ Cup hung in the balance for reigning champion female sprinter Informed Decision, who has been nearly unbeatable on synthetic surfaces but less dominant on dirt. She raced in fourth early but was steadied by Julien Leparoux between opponents at the top of the stretch and finished sixth as the 2.25-to-1 favorite.
“She has not run well on the turn on the dirt, for some reason, even though she normally finishes well," Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard said of Informed Decision, who entered with consecutive wins in stakes on synthetic surfaces at Arlington Park and Presque Isle Downs. She finished third behind Music Note and Indian Blessing in last year’s edition of the Ballerina before winning the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1) en route to divisional honors.
“I think she would have finished better today had she not had to be taken up. But she wasn’t going to win it.”
Rightly So strung together five straight wins from six starts against fellow state-breds last season and finished a promising third in the 6½-furlong Vagrancy Handicap (G2) in May in her first start in open company. She followed with a head victory in the Bed o’ Roses, defeating Qualia, who was eased in the final furlong of the Ballerina and finished last of eight after her saddle slipped.
Warbling held second by a neck from third-place finisher Jessica Is Back.
Rightly So, who has seven wins, three seconds, and one third from 11 career starts and $480,050 in earnings, is from the first crop of Read the Footnotes, a New York-bred multiple graded stakes winner based at Sequel Stallions New York in Otisville. One of three stakes winners this year for the son of Smoke Glacken, she is his top offspring to date.
Bred by Sequel 2003, Rightly So was a $220,000 purchase at the 2008 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. February sale of selected two-year-olds in training. She is out of the unraced Out of Place mare Fit Right In.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Rachel, Exeter, NH on August 29, 2010 at 07:15 AM
I'll tell you what, when they came around the turn it was obvious something was going on with ID...I was pretty po'd at Leparoux when he really cracked her with the whip...she is a champion...if she's not running, something's wrong, if I were her owner he'd never sit on her again.
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