Tamahere Wins North American Debut in Sands Point
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand
Tamahere wins the Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park
Swift Thoroughbreds, Madaket Stables, and Wonder Stables' French-bred Tamahere made her North American debut a winning one Oct. 10 in the $150,000 Sands Point Stakes (G2T) at Belmont Park.
Trained by four-time Eclipse Award-winner Chad Brown, Tamahere ($7) entered the one-turn mile for sophomore fillies on the Widener turf course off a nearly four-month layoff from a romping 7 1/2-length score in the Prix la Sorellina Presented by Tattersalls at La Teste De Buch in her native country.
Tamahere settled in seventh position as Pure Wow led the eight-horse field through splits of :23.87, :47.54, and 1:11.68 on the firm turf while being tracked by 2-1 favorite Miss J McKay and longshot Drop a Hint.
Pure Wow maintained a precarious lead turning for home with Giacosa launching a four-wide bid and Tamahere following her run outside of rivals, as Drop a Hint angled off the rail to stake her claim. Speaktomeofsummer, winner of the Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) in July at Saratoga Race Course, was full of run but trapped behind rivals with a furlong to run as Tamahere, under urging from Irad Ortiz Jr., demonstrated a powerful turn of foot and surged to a two-length victory in a final time of 1:35.21.
Speaktomeofsummer, with Joel Rosario up, arrived late to complete the exacta by three-quarters of a length over Drop a Hint.
Rounding out the order of finish were Pure Wow, a dead heat for fifth between Selflessly and Giacosa, Miss J McKay, and Positive Power.
Brown said Tamahere, who was reluctant to load into the starting gate, performed to the potential she had shown in her morning workouts at Belmont and Saratoga.
"She trained brilliantly," the trainer said. "As you can see behind the gate, there's still some work to do. She's a high-strung horse. She was a little bit keen early on, but Irad got her to settle and she showed us that turn of foot that she showed us in the morning. She's a really exciting horse to have for the future. We're lucky to have her. She gave us a lot of confidence that she would be a good horse."
Ortiz said Tamahere settled nicely once away from the gate.
"She broke good and put me in a good position," he said. "We got some pace in front of us and that worked out perfect because she settled down and relaxed so well. The trainer had told me, 'She has a nice turn of foot, you're going to love her.' I just trusted Chad and waited as long as I could and when I asked her, she was ready."
Rosario, aboard the late-closing Speaktomeofsummer, said his filly ran well once she saw daylight.
"It looked like for a second I had a hole to go through and then it just closed, so I had to wait a little longer," said Rosario. "The other horse just got the jump. She ran well."
Tamahere, bred in France by E.A.R.L. Elevage Du Sarai out of the Giant's Causeway mare Alatasarai, improved her earnings to $132,291 while improving her record to 3-2-1 from seven starts.