Anaconda wins an allowance optional claimer Sep 8 at Kentucky Downs (Coady Photography)
NYRA Press Office
ELMONT, N.Y.— Three Diamonds Farm’s multiple stakes-placed Anaconda will vie for the first stakes victory of his career in Saturday’s $150,000 Elusive Quality, a seven-furlong turf sprint for older horses, at Belmont Park.
The son of Pioneerof the Nile drew post 1 with Kendrick Carmouche in the irons, a position trainer Joe Sharp said could benefit Anaconda.
“I think he’s best if he can kind of sit that pocket trip and not leave too much to do,” said Sharp. “He’s been doing really good and I think the seven-eighths will be good for him. I always thought he was a middle-distance kind of horse. I wish we had a little more time in between races, but it is what it is.”
Anaconda enters the Elusive Quality from a narrow defeat in the one-mile Danger’s Hour on April 15 at Aqueduct where he trailed in last-of-3 for the first half-mile before brushing with the retreating pace-presser Eleven Central amidst an inside bid. Anaconda went wide in pursuit of pacesetter Big Everest and showed a strong turn of foot down the lane, but missed by a nose at the wire.
“He had a tough trip last time in a three-horse field, and turning for home he kind of got his momentum stopped a little bit,” said Sharp. “If that didn’t happen, he probably would have won the race. That being said, he’s been an ultra-consistent horse since we acquired him.”
Anaconda arrived in Sharp’s barn last summer and won at second asking for new connections in a seven-furlong optional claiming tilt at Kentucky Downs.
He has been on the board in five of his last seven outings, including an additional optional claiming score in November over the Laurel Park turf. He closed out his 2022 campaign with a close second-place finish in the Aqueduct Turf Sprint Championship where he was bested a half-length by Nothing Better, who went on to set a course record over the Big A outer turf in April.
The dark bay horse has raced twice over a turf course that was softer than firm, including his debut maiden victory over good footing at Del Mar in 2020. His other start was a 10th-place finish in an August optional claimer over good Saratoga turf where he was bumped hard at the break and struggled to get involved.
The Belmont turf could still hold substantial moisture heading into the weekend after rains doused the Long Island area for nearly a week, something Sharp said is his only question mark.
“My only concern is with the rain we’ve had,” said Sharp. “I think he tends to like a firmer turf course and we’re hoping it will dry out between now and then. That’s my only reservation.”
Sharp said he is pleased with the way Anaconda has progressed since he arrived in his barn.
“He’s definitely filled into his frame over the past 10 months since we got him,” said Sharp. “We added draw reins to him and keep him gathered up in the mornings, and that seems to work for him. He’s a neat horse.”
Out of the stakes-placed Medaglia d’Oro mare Lawn Party, Anaconda is a direct maternal descendant of influential broodmare La Troienne and is a half-brother to multiple graded stakes-placed Stellar Agent, who finished third in the 2018 Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. He has banked $303,110 in total earnings through a lifetime record of 15-4-2-2.
