Taken by the Wind holds on in Silverbulletday, Fair Grounds Photo
Fair Grounds Press
New Orleans, La – Away alertly from post position four of six, jockey Brian Hernandez, Jr. backed the pace down masterfully and when called upon off the far turn, Magdelena Racing, Terry Bradshaw, Graham Leviston & Rassi Stable’s Taken by the Wind responded gamely to prevail in Saturday’s $150,000 Fasig-Tipton Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
With Untapable runner-up Luv Your Neighbor perched to her outside and .50-1 favorite Atropa sitting the pocket, Taken by the Wind was able to back down the opening half mile fraction to a pedestrian 50.24. The Ken McPeek trainee cruised on the lead by an open length all the way until the quarter pole when she was engaged by the chasing duo both outside and inside. Taken by the wind dug deep, prevailing over Luv Your Neighbor by a neck in a final time of 1:43.58 for the 1 mile & 70 yards distance on a fast track. It was another neck back to Atropa in third. The race was run in a merry-go-round all the way around the track.
“She put us in that spot first jump out of the gate,” Hernandez, Jr. said. “They let us cruise around there as slow as we did. She had her ears up and was able to get a nice long breather. When Luv Your Neighbor came to her at the head of the lane, she was able to fend her off with how easily she was able to go early on.”
With the win, Taken by the Wind increased her Kentucky Oaks points total to 30, with the previous 10 earned for her victory in the Pocohontas (G3) at Churchill Downs in September. Purchased for just $20,000 out of the Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale, the 3-year-old daughter of Rock Your World is undefeated from three starts banking $270,710 in the process.
With consecutive runner-up performances in Fair Grounds stakes this meet, Luv Your Neighbor upped her total to 15. Golden Rod (G2) runner-up Atropa now has 11 points after banking five more in the Silverbulletday. Fourth place finisher Pashmina earned four and now has seven. Dancin in Old Town got two points for running fifth. White Smoke completed the order of finish in sixth.
Taken by the Wind paid $10.80, $7.00 and $2.80. Luv Your Neighbor returned $8.20 and $3.40 and Atropa paid $2.10 to show.
The next race in the Fair Grounds series of 3-year-old fillies races is the Fasig-Tipton Rachel Alexandra (G2) to be contested on Saturday, February 15. The Kentucky Oaks points increase again to 50-25-15-10-5.
