Hot Beach takes the Limestone under Jose Ortiz (Courtney Snow/Past The Wire)
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Keeneland Press Release
LEXINGTON, Ky.— Boardshorts Stables’ Hot Beach was first out of the starting gate and first at the finish line in posting a 4-length victory in the fifth running of the FanDuel Limestone for 3-year-old fillies.
Trained by Brian Lynch and ridden by Jose Ortiz, Hot Beach completed the 5½ furlongs over a sloppy main track in 1:05.70 after the race was moved off the turf course. It is the second victory in the race for Lynch, who won with Tobys Heart in 2021.
Hot Beach quickly established a clear advantage right out of the gate and faced no pressure in setting fractions of :22.24 and :45.16. The margin of victory was the largest in the race.
Hot Beach is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Omaha Beach out of the Medaglia d’Oro mare Hot Water. Now 5-2-2-1 in her career that includes a victory in the Debutante last summer at Ellis Park, Hot Beach increased her earnings to $320,883 with Friday’s $149,188 check.
Sent off as the favorite, Hot Beach returned $3.98, $2.80 and $2.46. Zoe’s Prime, who raced second all the way around under Tyler Gaffalione, returned $4.88 and $3.76 and finished a length in front of Kodiac Wintergreen (IRE), who paid $4.40 to show under Luis Saez.
It was another 1¾ lengths back to Big Trouble with Antique Silver, Midnight Angel, Foxxy Cleopatra and Greavette following in order.
Racing continues Saturday with an 11-race program beginning at 1 p.m. ET highlighted by the 36th running of the $600,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles on the grass. The Jenny Wiley is the ninth race with a post time of 5:16 p.m.
Also on Saturday’s program is the 42nd running of the $400,000 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) for 3-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on the main track and the 27th running of the $300,000 Giant’s Causeway (G3) for fillies and mares going 5½ furlongs on the grass. The Giant’s Causeway is the seventh race at 4:12 p.m. and the Stonestreet Lexington is the 10th at 5:48 p.m.
Quotes for the $250,000 FanDuel Limestone
Brian Lynch (winning trainer of Hot Beach), On how he prepared Hot Beach to break from the starting gate so quickly: “I tried to follow my good buddy (trainer) Wesley Ward’s instructions over the years: Leave there running. I hope (she’s gotten better); I hope she makes this transition from two to three (years old). She had a great little 2-year-old campaign, and Jose worked her a bit during the winter, so I felt very comfortable with him up on her today. It was a good result. It’s a lovely race to win here in the spring.”
Jose Ortiz (winning rider): “She got in (the gate) and put her head down so I knew she was going to break (from the gate) quick. It was a matter of the 9 horse (Foxxy Cleopatra), if she was going to break quick as well, but she didn’t. I was very happy to go to the lead. She broke like a shot and then I just sat chilly. When I asked her to go, she responded well.”
Tyler Gaffalione (rider of runner-up Zoe’s Prime): “The filly broke alertly. She put me in a good spot. I tried to put as much pressure on the leader as I could, but she was going a little too quick for us. I believe we ran a very credible race, just second best. It wasn’t her favorite track today, but she handled it fine. I was able to get outside of (the winner) before (my filly) caught any kickback, so we had a clear face most of the race.”
Luis Saez (rider of third-place finisher Kodiac Wintergreen [IRE]): “It was good. She broke a little slow out of the gate. Maybe we could’ve finished second if we had a perfect trip.”
