Great Island Overcomes Stumble to Win $100,000 Suwannee River
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Multiple graded-stakes winner Lady’s Island made her last start for Averill Racing LLC and Matties Racing’ a winning one Saturday at Gulfstream Park, notching her 18th career race in the $100,000 Lady’s Turf Sprint.
The Ladies’ Turf Sprint, scheduled for five-furlongs on turf, was transferred to the sloppy main track due to afternoon rain, as was the co-featured $100,000 Suwannee River.
A winner on turf as well as dirt, Lady’s Island is entered in next week’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale.
“She’s been so good to me, so good to the barn, so good to the connections. She’s been so beautifully campaigned by the owners, and we’re going to miss her not only as a racehorse but as a horse. She’s such a pleasure to be around. It’s bittersweet,” trainer Georgina Baxter said. “I’m just so pleased that she went out on top, because she deserves it after all she’s done and achieved.”
The 7-year-old daughter of Greatness. The 6-5 favorite in a field of six, broke a step slowly but quickly recovered to take the lead inside Hear My Prayer and never looked back on her way to a victory by three-quarters of a length under Emisael Jaramillo.
“There’s always nervous moments. I’m nervous from this morning. When she got the lead and looked relaxed, I wasn’t really worried,” Baxter said. “She always pulls through. She never lets us down.”
Lady’s Island, who had made a successful title defense in the Sugar Swirl (G3) at Gulfstream in per previous start, ran five furlongs in 58.87 seconds.
Miss Auramet closed under Jose Ortiz to finish second, a half-length ahead of Hear My Prayer.,
Great Island Overcomes Stumble to Win $100,000 Suwannee River
Alpha Delta Stables LLC’s Great Island overcame a bad stumble at the start to put her head in front at the finish of Saturday’s $100,000 Suwanee River at Gulfstream Park.
Making her first main-track start in the 1 1/8-mile stakes for older fillies and mares that was taken off the turf due to afternoon rain, the 4-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy collected her first career stakes victory while narrowly prevailing over pacesetter Drop a Hint on a sealed sloppy racetrack. The Chad Brown-trained filly provided jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. with his fourth of six victories on Saturday’s 12-race program.
Sent to post as the 1-5 favorite in a field reduced to six by scratches, Great Island stumbled leaving the starting gate to drop several lengths behind the field heading into the first turn. Drop a Hint set fractions of 24.28 and 48.81 seconds without pressure for the first half mile and continued to show the way on the far turn after rebuffing a challenge by Loving Moment. Great Island steadily advanced along the backstretch and far turn to reach contention on the turn into the homestretch, but Drop a Hint wasn’t showing any signs of weakening under Edgard Zayas.
“It’s hard to overcome after that in the first part of the race. She just stumbled, big-time, twice. After I said, ‘Let me just see what she can do.’ I just let her settle and by the backside she started moving really good so I didn’t want to take too much hold of her after what happened in the beginning. I just let her roll and find her stride,” Ortiz said.
It took the entire length of the stretch, but Ortiz succeeded in urging the Chad Brown trainee to victory by a head.
“By the quarter pole. I had to start working on her, but thank God, she kept coming. The trainer did a great job. She had a lot of stamina,” Ortiz said. “For a second, I thought she didn’t want to go by the other horse probably, and she was looking at her, so I just tried to stay a little away in the stretch so she can feel free and go on and pass that horse. I got lucky I could go by.”
Great Island, who was placed third after finishing second in the Via Borghese at Gulfstream in her previous start, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.51. Drop a Hint finished second, a half-length ahead of Mylastfirstkiss.
Press Release Gulfstream Park/ Photo Credit- Ryan Thompson
