Jockey Luan Machado scores second stakes win on the weekend. (Keeneland Photo)
Wednesday’s late Pick 5 carryover is $301,896
Keeneland Release
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Selective LLC’s Chop Chop hit the front at the top of the stretch and then held off a late bid from Forever After All by a nose to win the 33rd running of the $300,000 Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) for fillies and mares Sunday afternoon.
Ridden by Luan Machado and trained by Brad Cox, Chop Chop covered the mile and a half on a firm turf course in 2:29. The victory marked the fifth stakes win this fall for Cox, the most for any trainer during a Keeneland meet.
The previous record for stakes wins by a trainer at a Keeneland meet was four. Six trainers share that mark: D. Wayne Lukas, Mark Casse, Graham Motion, Ben Jones, Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown.
The victory is the second in two starts over the Keeneland turf for Chop Chop, who won the 1½-mile Bewitch (G3) Presented by Keeneland Sales here in April. She joins Upperline (2012) and Kitten’s Point (2015) as the only horses to win both races in the same year.
Chop Chop was comfortable to race second just behind Surprisingly, who set fractions of :24.72, :49.94, 1:15.88 and 1:40.88. Chop Chop began to inch closer on the far turn and took the lead at the quarter pole.
Chop Chop had a daylight advantage by midstretch with the only challenge emerging from Forever After All, who received a ground-saving trip from Adam Beschizza. Forever After All had clear sailing along the rail after Surprisingly left an opening at the eighth pole and just ran out of ground.
Chop Chop is a 4-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of City of Light out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Grand Sofia. The victory was worth $172,050 and increased Chop Chop’s earnings to $1,239,952 to with a record of 20-6-7-3.
Chop Chop returned $9.62, $5.10 and $3.72. Forever After All returned $12.88 and $7.56 and finished 2½ lengths in front of Anatolian, who paid $10.56 to show under Ricardo Santana Jr.
It was another half-length back to Mrs. Astor with favored Neecie Marie, Cozee Rags, Duvet Day (IRE), Atomic Blonde (GER), Surprisingly, Let’sbefrankbaby (AUS) and Heart Spin following in order.
Sunday was the popular Heroes Day at Keeneland, which honored members of the military, first responders, health care workers and their families.
The American flag rollout on the main track by the Henry Clay High School Junior ROTC, which preceded Keeneland Bugler Steve Buttleman playing “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America.” Tenor soloist, conductor and professor of voice Dr. Everett McCorvey then led the crowd in singing “God Bless America.”
Racing at Keeneland resumes Wednesday for the final four days of the Fall Meet with an eight-race program that begins at 1 p.m. ET.
That day, Keeneland will offer a late Pick 5 carryover of $301,896.
Quotes from the $300,000 Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3)
Luan Machado (winning rider of Chop Chop): “She was pretty comfortable all the way around. She broke real good and got me in a perfect spot. She’s an old pro. She knows what to do. She knows when to go faster, and she actually did it on her own. I’ve got to congratulate the team – (trainer) Brad (Cox) and everybody else – and thank them for the opportunity.”
Brad Cox (winning trainer), On how he found which races would best suit Chop Chop: “I guess experimenting a little bit. We nominated her to the race in April here at Keeneland (the 1½ mile Bewitch-G3 Presented by Keeneland Sales, which she won) to see how it came up. We thought she had a shot, so we took a chance and (winning) opened up a lot of new avenues for her. I guess that’s the one thing I’ve learned from her: Sometimes when one’s not really moving forward or you think you’re out of options, try something new, and it worked out; she likes the marathon distances. She’s really good and physical – plenty of scope, plenty of leg. She looks like a mile-and-a-half filly. She’s steps up, very consistent – synthetic, dirt, turf. She’s a very nice filly.”
Adam Beschizza (rider of runner-up Forever After All): “Good trip. I think they (owners) said they might run her in New York. You’ll be seeing her again.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. (rider of third-place finisher Anatolian): “It was a clean trip; she ran really good. She was beautiful (nearing the finish), but I just got beat by the two best fillies in the race.”
Joel Rosario (rider of fifth-place finisher and beaten favorite Neecie Marie): “Good trip. First time she’s run (at Keeneland). She looked for a second (like) she was going to continue, but they just kind of got away a little bit. Everything was smooth, exactly where she likes to be. She ran her race, but sometimes it’s hard to win all the time. She’s a special horse. I’m very happy the owner and trainer and everybody gave me the opportunity to ride her. Like I said, it’s hard to win all the time. We’ll try for the next one.”
