Naomis gets up in time int he Lake Placid, NYRA Photo
NYRA Press Release
Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, Thirty Year Racing and Michael Caruso’s Naomis, a Group 2 winner in her native France, burst onto the North American scene in grand style with a dramatic last-to-first victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $400,000 Lake Placid at Saratoga Race Course.
The 43rd running of the Lake Placid for 3-year-old fillies going a two-turn mile on the inner turf course was the third of six graded-stakes worth $3.65 million in purses on a stacked program headlined by the Grade 1, $1.25 million DraftKings Travers.
Naomis covered the firm going in 1:35.72 to give trainer Chad Brown his third win of the day and a record-extending seventh in the Lake Placid following Rushing Fall [2018], Regal Glory [2019], Technical Analysis [2021], Haughty [2022], Aspray [2023] and Grayosh [2024].
Aspray and Grayosh were both ridden by Flavien Prat, who was also aboard Naomis for his fourth win on the Travers Day card. Favored at 6-5 in a field of eight, Naomis returned $4.54 for a $2 win bet.
Prat and Naomis were unhurried in the early going as 26-1 Irish-bred longshot Flowerhead, third in the one-mile Grade 3 Ontario Colleen on July 25 at Woodbine in her prior start, was intent on the lead and went the first quarter-mile in 25.02 seconds. East Jabip made a bold bid on the first turn from the outermost post 8 to get into a stalking position in second racing in the clear two-wide, with Ultimate Love third along the hedge and Naomis’ stablemate Deep Learning in a shared fourth.
The pace picked up slightly down the backstretch with the top four unchanged following a half-mile in 49.44 and Prat still biding his time with Naomis. The group rounded the far turn in a bunch and Flowerhead, racing on the inside, appeared to bobble in the tight going, losing enough ground to allow East Jabip to forge a short lead until Ultimate Love barged through along the inside.
“Off of those fractions, I thought the race was hopelessly lost when I saw 25 [25.02] and 49 [49.44] go up on this turf course,” Dubb said. “She’s a very classy filly.”
Meanwhile, Prat had swung Naomis to the far outside and given the filly her cue, and she responded with a steady drive down the center of the stretch to pick up horses until passing Ultimate Love inside the sixteenth pole and pulling clear by a half-length to her third straight victory and first in the U.S.
“I knew there was going to be a lack of pace, but I thought she was good enough to overcome that,” Prat said. “When we turned for home, she took a bad step. She slipped and I thought it was going to cost me, but she recovered quickly and showed she was talented. Even with the slow pace, I thought she was good enough to overcome that, and she proved it.”
Ultimate Love held second, three-quarters of a length in front of Deep Learning. East Jabip, Queen of Hawaii, Kokomotion, Nonconsecutivetrms and Flowerhead completed the order of finish. Oscar Bound was scratched.
Naomis had not run since registering a three-quarter-length victory in the Prix de Sandringham on May 31 at Chantilly, taking the lead with an eighth of a mile to run to spring the 20-1 upset. She became a stakes winner in her prior start, a rallying neck score in the Prix Aymeri de Mauleon on April 19 at Toulouse, when she was similarly dismissed at 19-1 odds. A deal was made to purchase Naomis privately and bring her to North America after a final start in France.
“We bought her and kept her in Europe for a race, it was a Group 2 and she won it there,” Dubb said. “So, we knew she was of this level. She’s special. You don’t see finishes like that too often.”
Both of those wins came at about one mile around right-handed turns, a cutback in distance and change in configuration from her first four outings at nine and 10 furlongs around left-handed bends. Naomis had breezed six times since mid-July at Saratoga, five over the turf, to prepare for her first crack at American-style racing.
Brown said the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on October 10 at Keeneland could be next for Naomis.
“She shipped over to our barn and we momentarily thought about the Lake George [on August 1 here] with her. I was on the fence, and she spiked a temperature and made my mind up for me that way,” Brown said. “So, we pointed her to this and obviously her form going a mile in her last two was good, so it made a lot of sense to start her at a mile. She had trained like she could be a potential Queen Elizabeth horse and it sure looks like that off one run.”
Live racing resumes Sunday at Saratoga with a 10-race card featuring the $200,000 Yaddo in Race 9. First post is 1:10 p.m. Eastern.
Saratoga Live presents daily coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/saratoga/racing/tv-schedule/.
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