Blowout Blows Them Away in Belmont's Pebbles Stakes
Image:
Description:
Photo: Coglianese Photos/Joe Labozzetta
Blowout wins the Pebbles Stakes at Belmont Park
When last seen, Peter Brant's Blowout was sloshing along on the lead in the Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) at a soggy Saratoga Race Course, battling five rivals and a hellacious rainstorm that brought darkness to the racetrack.
The daughter of Dansili led at every pole but the last one as Varenka and Regal Glory inched past her in the final strides and she settled for third, just a neck behind the two 3-year-olds who finished in a controversial dead heat after the darkened skies made it a difficult task to decipher the photo finish image.
This time, the rain held off and Blowout held on rather easily.
When Blowout returned in the $206,700 Pebbles Stakes, there were gray skies above Belmont Park for much of the Sept. 14 card, but the rain stayed away and Blowout cruised along on a quick but clear lead on firm turf and then pulled away in the stretch under John Velazquez to record a 2 1/4-length victory in the one-mile turf stakes for 3-year-old fillies.
"I had a hold of her all the way past the three-eighths pole, which is very unusual because when the horse is pulling, you might want to (let her run) a little bit to get her to relax," Velazquez said. "I waited, and when I asked her turning for home, she took off."
E Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Seek and Destroy closed from fifth in the field of seven to take second by a head over Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Tango Uniform Racing's Feel Glorious, giving trainer Chad Brown a 1-2 finish as well as a third straight win in the Pebbles.
Last year's Pebbles featured Got Stormy, who finished seventh en route to becoming a grade 1 winner this year, and Blowout certainly seems headed in that direction.
The Pebbles was her third win in seven starts, two of them coming in stakes. She also finished second in the Lake George Stakes (G3T) at the Spa.
"She's a very consistent little filly. She puts out a ton of effort, and she has the ability to match," assistant trainer Whit Beckman said. "In the right spot, she's very effective."
The Pebbles was surely the right spot as Brant's filly led by a length after a half-mile in :46.24. The main pursuers at that point were Passing Out and the rank Eyeinthesky, but they ran out of gas after Blowout passed the quarter pole in a fleet 1:09.99.
In the stretch—on firm turf as opposed to Niagara Falls in her last start—Blowout took charge and extended the lead to two lengths in midstretch and cruised from there. The 5-2 third choice covered the mile in 1:33.35, the fastest clocking since the stakes was moved to a mile in 2005. She paid $7.70 to win.
"She got left alone up front, and it was a great trip," Beckman said. "It may not have been a graded stakes, but it was worth $200,000, and we'll take it."
Out of the Deep Impact mare Beauty Parlour, Blowout was purchased by Brant for $481,095 from the Castlebridge Consignment at the 2016 Goffs November Foals Sale. She is the first stakes winner for Beauty Parlour, who has a 2-year-old colt named Edge of Victory by Kingman and a weanling Galileo filly.
Seek and Destroy, a daughter of Verrazano who won the Ontario Colleen Stakes (G3T) in her previous start, was the narrow $2.10-to-1 favorite over Katsumi Yoshida's 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) runner-up East, who was fifth.
"It's always nice to have an exacta," Beckman said.