Jody’s Pride ahead of her runner-up effort in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Grade 1-placed Jody’s Pride will vie to provide trainer Jorge Abreu and co-owner Parkland Thoroughbreds with their third $200,000 Busher victory in the last six runnings when taking on six rivals in Saturday’s Listed one-mile test for sophomore fillies at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The Busher awards the top-five finishers 50-25-15-10-5 qualifying points towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks and is one of four stakes one the lucrative 10-race program, highlighted by the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham, a 50-25-15-10-5 Kentucky Derby qualifier, and supported by the Grade 3, $175,000 Tom Fool Handicap and Listed $150,000 Stymie.
Abreu has trained two Busher winners in recent years, saddling Espresso Shot in 2019 and her half-sister Venti Valentine in 2022, both fillies co-owned by Parkland Thoroughbreds. Now, the stakes-winning Jody’s Pride will look to follow in their footsteps and claim the historic race named for the Hall of Famer and 1945 Horse of the Year.
“We’re trying to go for a third one,” Abreu said, with a laugh. “She’s doing pretty well here and is doing everything great.”
Jody’s Pride, co-owned by Sportsmen Stable, makes her seasonal bow on the heels of a game runner-up effort in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies contested around two turns on November 3 at Santa Anita Park. She tracked two lengths off the pace under Flavien Prat in third throughout and was given her cue in the turn while angling wide for an outside run at the topflight. She rallied on gamely down the stretch to come up a neck shy of Just F Y I, who was later named the Champion 2-Year-Old Filly.
Abreu expressed his pride in the daughter of American Pharoah as she made the hefty stretch-out from a win in the off-the-turf six-furlong Matron in October at Belmont at the Big A.
“She ran big. I knew she was going to, but my only concern was the two turns,” Abreu said. “She had never stretched out before, but she showed up the right way. She went from five and a half [furlongs], to six, and then to a mile and a sixteenth, and ran that kind of a race. She was training very well into that race.”
Jody’s Pride returns to the scene of her dominant Matron win that saw her take command at the half-mile call and draw off to a comfortable 3 1/4-length score over subsequent stakes-winner Tricky Temper. She graduated on debut in August at Saratoga Race Course with a 10 1/2-length romp in a 5 1/2-furlong off-the-turf maiden.
Abreu said Jody’s Pride should appreciate cutting back to a one-turn mile at Aqueduct, but that she will likely stretch out again in the future.
“I think it will suit her. She’s won on this track already – a lot of little things [help],” said Abreu. “But she can stretch out and distance won’t be a problem. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Jody’s Pride, tabbed as the 4-5 morning-line favorite, will emerge from post 6 in rein to Jose Lezcano on Saturday.
The Busher proved a gateway to a start in the Kentucky Oaks for NY Final Furlong Racing Stable and Parkland Thoroughbreds’ Venti Valentine in 2022 when she dazzled with a seven-length triumph en route to a runner-up effort in the Grade 3 Gazelle one month later.
Though she finished off the board in the Kentucky Oaks, the now 5-year-old daughter of Firing Line has gone on to enjoy tremendous success in the Empire State, and has since won three additional stakes while placing in five others, including a third in the Grade 3 Go for Wand in December and a last-out runner-up effort in the state-bred Broadway when defeated a neck by Security Code.
“She’s doing great,” said Abreu. “She always shows up and she always tries. It makes it worth it to get up in the morning and come to the barn when you have a horse like this.”
In the seven-horse Broadway, Venti Valentine stalked 2 1/2 lengths off the pace under regular pilot Manny Franco and swung seven-wide in the turn to make her run at the pacesetting Kant Hurry Love and the pressing Security Code. Venti Valentine rolled down the center of the course and gained with every stride, but could not catch Security Code in time and settled for place honors.
Abreu said he is eyeing the one-mile $100,000 Biogio’s Rose on March 23 at the Big A for the chestnut’s next outing.
“She was unlucky in her last race and was wide,” Abreu said. “I don’t really know what to think. She was so wide in a short field – you’d expect that in a 10-horse field. I’m going to run her in the New York-bred race at the end of the month.”
Venti Valentine has posted a solid 18-6-4-4 record with total purse earnings of $741,600. Bred in the Empire State by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, she is a half-sister to the aforementioned Espresso Shot, as well as the recently stakes-placed Landed.
