Lady's Island Notches Encore Sugar Swirl Score
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Ryan Thompson
Lady's Island (inside) wins the Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream Park
The Sugar Swirl Stakes (G3) has surely been a sweet treat for the speedy 6-year-old mare Lady's Island.
One year after the Matties Racing Stable and Averill Racing runner won this race decisively by 6 3/4 lengths for trainer Georgina Baxter, Lady's Island had to work considerably harder and survive a stewards' inquiry, but she managed to make it back-to-back Sugar Swirl victories.
Improving to a mark of eight wins in 12 starts at Gulfstream Park, the daughter of Greatness held on by a rapidly diminishing head to take the 39th running of the $100,000 Sugar Swirl for fillies and mares Dec. 12 at Gulfstream Park.
"I was a little nervous. She was staggering at the end," said Rich Averill of Averill Racing. "We got lucky today."
Putting an uncharacteristic 13 1/2-length loss in the Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G2) at Keeneland behind her, Lady's Island returned to top form at the friendly confines of Gulfstream Park and notched her 17th victory in a 34-race career.
Put on the lead as usual by regular rider Emisael Jaramillo, Lady's Island cruised along on the front end through fractions of :22:12 and :44.54, and when she passed the eighth pole ahead by three lengths, she seemed home free.
Unfortunately for Averill's nerves, the race became a nail-biter in the final sixteenth.
As fatigue caught up with the early leader in the field of six, the trio of Bronx Beauty, 6-5 favorite Cinnabunny, and Sound Machine cut into her margin with each jump. As Lady's Island came out a bit while clear despite Jaramillo's right-hand urging, Cinnabunny and jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., who rallied along the inside, moved outside of the leader.
With 2W Stables' Bronx Beauty closing quickly four horses wide, as the wire approached there was no longer room for two horses to fit between Bronx Beauty and Lady's Island. Ortiz tried to bull Cinnabunny through the narrowing hole, bumping e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Sound Machine.
When the wire arrived, Lady's Island ($11) held off Bronx Beauty, a daughter of Liaison trained by Anthony Margotta Jr.
Cinnabunny, a Pennsylvania-bred who was making her first start for trainer Brad Cox after Madaket Stables, Michael Dubb, and Bethlehem Stables joined Michael Anspach in the ownership group, was three-quarters of a length behind in third, a neck ahead of Sound Machine.
Following a foul claim by Ortiz against the winner and an inquiry, the stewards let the result stand.
"We like this stakes," said Averill, who finished second to Sugar Swirl with Rgirldoesn'tbluff in the 2008 First Lady Handicap (G3), which later became the Sugar Swirl Stakes in 2010.
The final time was 1:10.46.
Bred in Florida by Bailey Bolen out of the Broad Brush mare Broadway Martha, Lady's Island improved her earnings to $604,195.
"We don't know what the future holds for her. This could be one of her last races," Averill said. "We're in this for nice horses like her on big days and to win races like this. It's great."