Landed. (Susie Raisher)
By Mary Eddy
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Lael Stables’ Landed led each step of the way to win Sunday’s $125,000 Broadway, a seven-furlong sprint for older New York-bred fillies and mares, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained by Welsey Ward, the 4-year-old daughter of Omaha Beach returned from a nearly four-month layoff to notch her third career stakes score, adding to previous state-bred wins in the seven-furlong Bouwerie and nine-furlong Fleet Indian last summer at Saratoga Race Course. She improved her lifetime record to 8-5-1-2 with earnings of $366,760 after receiving $68,750 for the Broadway victory.
“She’s a win machine, that filly. She just keeps on winning,” Ward said. “She kind of bounces out of there and if we can get there [to the front], then she just keeps running. She’s just a sweetheart of a filly to train. She does everything right and has no issues at all.”
Landed emerged from the inside post and bumped with a foe but recovered quickly under Frankie Pennington and hustled up the rail to make the front and mark the opening quarter-mile in 23.17 seconds over the fast footing.
“She has natural speed, so I wanted to be forward anyways, but it just happened to work out perfectly for me,” Pennington explained. “I can’t ask for anything else. I’ve been watching all day, and speed has been holding, but I’ve seen them come from a little off of it, too, so I saw she could run off the pace, too. She ran good from off of it in her first start, but with her natural speed and when she broke, since I had the opportunity to go on with the lead, I took it.”
Speightful Lily applied pressure to the outside of Landed down the backstretch with the favored My Magic Wand in third and Sweet Brown Sugar following close behind under Lane Luzzi with the half-mile elapsed in 46.59. Manny Franco coaxed My Magic Wand in the three-path in the turn and Speightful Lily came under a ride, but Pennington remained collected aboard Landed as she reached the top of the lane 2 1/2 lengths in front.
My Magic Wand spun her wheels in the center of the course while Pennington shook the reins and showed a right-handed crop to Landed inside the final eighth. Sweet Brown Sugar made an inside bid before being moved to the outside of the pacesetter by Luzzi to give game chase but Landed proved too tough to catch in the final stages as she crossed the wire one length in front in a final time of 1:24.78.
Sweet Brown Sugar held place by 2 1/4 lengths over Speightful Lily with Caldwell Luvs Gold running on from last to complete the superfecta another 3 1/2 lengths back. Tough Street and My Magic Wand completed the order of finish.
Bernietakescharge, winner of yesterday’s open-company $150,000 Heavenly Prize Invitational, was scratched, along with fellow Heavenly Prize contender Bon Adieu. Cara’s Time, Snappin Buttons and Catchphrase, who is entered in Race 5 here on Saturday, were also scratched.
Ward said Landed’s disposition gave him confidence that she could handle a late challenge off the layoff.
“She has had a few works, but we’ve been compromised by weather in Kentucky, so she hasn’t been able to stay on a steady stream of works, which is always a question mark,” Ward said. “Her willingness and wanting to go, you knew she’s going to give her all. It all worked out for us today, which doesn’t always happen.”
Bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, Landed was a $500,000 purchase at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Yearling Sale and is out of the winning Medaglia d’Oro mare Glory Gold, making her a half-sister to multiple graded stakes-placed millionaire Venti Valentine and multiple stakes-winner Espresso Shot. She returned $7.80 on a $2 win ticket.
Ward added Landed’s next outing will likely come sometime this spring at his home base of Keeneland.
“For me, I try to use February and the first part of March to set these horses up for Keeneland. I’ll be talking with the Jacksons [owners] and we’ll see if we can pick out a nice race for her there,” Ward said. “I’m sure she’ll be back to New York for the rest of the spring and summer after that. We’ll wait to see how she comes out of this one and talk it over. She’s still eligible for a two-other-than and is very sound. She should have plenty of racing ahead of her.”
Luzzi, aboard the Paul Barrow-trained Sweet Brown Sugar, said the daughter of Collected was game in defeat.
“I had a really good trip. There were three of them vying for the lead, I kind of tucked into fourth position and Frankie looked like he had a ton of horse on the three,” Luzzi said. “I followed him to the top of the stretch, and from there it was a two-horse race. No complaints, my filly really battled, and maybe if it was a little longer, we would’ve gotten up for the win.”
Live racing resumes Thursday at the Big A with an eight-race card. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
