Random Harvest wins an allowance Oct. 26 at Keeneland (Coady Media)
David Joseph/Gulfstream Park
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – His success with turf females well-established, trainer Jimmy Toner has another rising star on his hands in Joseph Allen’s homebred Random Harvest.
Undefeated in her only two starts, Random Harvest is set to make her stakes debut in Saturday’s $140,000 Tropical Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park.
A daughter of champion Uncle Mo out of the Galileo mare Claire de Lune, Random Harvest will take the first steps on a path carved out by such Toner-trained standouts as millionaires Soaring Softly, Memories of Silver, Winter Memories and Wonder Again and fellow Grade 1 winner Time and Motion.
Soaring Softly was the champion grass mare of 1999, kicking off the year with an allowance win at Gulfstream and capping it with a victory in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1). Mother and daughter Memories of Silver (1998) and Winter Memories (2012) won the Diana (G1) 14 years apart; in between, Toner also won it with Wonder Again (2004).
Though Random Harvest still has much to accomplish, the 84-year-old Toner, who won his first career race in 1960, believes she shares similar talent and traits to her celebrated predecessors.
“She does, yeah,” Toner said. “I’m not saying she’s a Winter Memories or anything like that, but she reminds me quite a bit of some of the nice fillies I’ve had. The main thing is that she’s got a good mind to her, and that always helps them.”
Random Harvest went unraced at 2 and has faced older horses in both her starts this year. She rallied from mid-pack to capture her unveiling, a one-mile maiden special weight Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs, by 3 ½ lengths and followed up with a 1 ¼-length open allowance triumph going 1 3/16 miles Oct. 26 at Keeneland, also from off the pace.
RANDOM HARVEST ($7.66) swept by them all to win the 5th at @KeenelandRacing. The Uncle Mo (@coolmoreamerica) filly was trained by James Toner, @jockeyfranco in the irons.
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) October 26, 2024
Play the Late Pick 5: https://t.co/9KTJWl3WMw pic.twitter.com/lIhmuZfTp9
“She had some minor issues as a 2-year-old and, being an Uncle Mo, we decided to just take our time with her and be careful with her. It’s all paid off pretty good so far,” Toner said. “She’s quite a nice filly. She trained well and then we sent her down to Kentucky. It’s hard for a horse to win first time out like that at Kentucky Downs, so that was impressive. Then she showed it again when she ran back at Keeneland. We’re quite excited about her. She’s a nice filly to be around, she does everything the right way and is just classy top to bottom.”
Maryland-based jockey Victor Carrasco is named to ride Random Harvest for the first time. They drew Post 6 in an overflow field of 15 that includes Grade 3 winners Life’s an Audible and Waskesiu, Grade 2-placed Vive Veuve and Grade 3-placed Yatta. Life’s an Audible, Vive Veuve, In Our Time and De Regreso are all stakes winners on the Gulfstream turf.
“It’s the last chance to run against 3-year-olds. I know there’s a pretty solid group of horses in there, so she’s lacking experience. But she’s won two, so it’s either an allowance race against older horses or go against 3-year-olds,” Toner said. “We’d like to get some black type, which I think we’ll get somewhere along the line, next year anyway, but we’ll see how we do against these fillies.
