Andrea a half-length winner of the Azalea (Sonny G Hughes)
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Miguel Vasquez proved to be a perfect fit for C2 Racing Stable LLC, Kuehne Racing and Mark Corrado’s Andrea in Saturday’s $75,000 Azalea at Gulfstream Park, where the 3-year-old daughter of Thousand Words scored a thoroughly professional a half-length victory in the seven-furlong stakes for sophomore fillies.
Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Andrea, the 2-1 second betting choice, notched her second stakes victory in eight career starts and her first since winning the Hallandale Beach at Gulfstream last September.
Ridden for the first time by Vasquez, Andrea showed her usual gate speed before allowing Vasquez to ease her back as Fede pulled up alongside her on the backstretch to assume pacesetting duties. Fede showed the way past fractions of 22.44 and 45.03 (seconds) for the first half mile to take the six-horse field into the stretch under Emisael Jaramillo. Andrea, having conserved her energy courtesy of a heads-up ride by Vasquez, quickly challenged the pacesetter on fresh legs that would carry her to victory while holding off a late rally by 23-1 longshot Nerazurri.
“Miguel did a nice job easing her when that horse [Fede}came up on her outside on the outside,” C2 Racing’s Mark Cornett said. “He did a nice job easing her back and then getting her to the outside to get a nice comfortable stalking position. He did a great job.”
While Vasquez was riding Andrea for the first time, he hardly came in cold to ride the $105,000 2024 OBS April purchase
“She broke from the gate right away, she was able to sit right behind the speed and then took it home. This is a horse that loves to fight. She has a lot of energy,” Vasquez said. “I watched the old videos of her races, and I noticed she likes to push in the last part of it and take off.”
Andrea ran seven furlongs in 1:22.38. Joseph-trained Luvumorgan, who was favored at 4-5 Saturday after beating her by nearly three lengths in the March 31 Game Face, was never a factor while finishing a distant fourth.
Nerazurri, who had finished a distant sixth in the Game Face, finished three lengths clear of Fede, who was followed by Luvumorgan by five lengths.
