Always Shopping Delivers in Via Borghese
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Ryan Thompson
Always Shopping pulls away for a three-length victory in the Via Borghese Stakes at Gulfstream Park
Up and down the East Coast Dec. 19, Repole Stable was knocking out $100,000 stakes victories.
About a half-hour after winning the $100,000 Queen's County Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack with the Rudy Rodriguez-trained Backsideofthemoon, Repole Stable added another stakes win when the Todd Pletcher-trained Always Shopping was successful in the $100,000 Via Borghese Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The 4-year-old daughter of Awesome Again scored by three lengths in the 1 3/16-mile turf race.
Always Shopping ($7.40) was the third win of the day for jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. and first in the Via Borghese for both Ortiz and trainer Todd Pletcher. The winning time was 1:54.34 over a firm turf course.
Ortiz settled Always Shopping in third as Traipsing broke sharply and took the field through moderate fractions of :24.31 and :50.11 , tracked by 99-1 longshot Lady Panda. Always Shopping tipped to the outside on the turn and took over the lead once straightened for home, powering through to win in style.
"It worked out perfect," Ortiz said. "I thought I was going to sit second but (Traipsing) broke sharp and I didn't want to use my horse to get position. So I stayed third. She was comfortable. I waited for the time to go and when I asked her she responded very well."
Pletcher was impressed with the way Always Shopping finished up to earn her fourth stakes win. She won the 1 1/8-mile Gazelle Stakes (G2) last April on dirt.
"She really jumped in at the top of the stretch and kicked on hard. They weren't going very fast early, but they were late," Pletcher said.
Great Island outran Always Shopping's stablemate, Cap de Creus, to cross the wire in second, but was disqualified for bearing out in the stretch and placed third behind Cap de Creus.
"I was delighted to get her stakes-placed. We've knocked on the door a few times, so that was big," Pletcher said of Cap de Creus. "It looked like Johnny had to steady her pretty hard at one point but it was a good effort."
Always Shopping now owns two wins from three tries over the Gulfstream turf and pushed her career bankroll to $403,030 from 13 races.
Bred in Kentucky by her owner, Always Shopping is out of the More Than Ready mare Stopshoppingmaria, who won the Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes at Gulfstream for Repole Stable and Pletcher in 2013. A couple of years earlier, she placed in the Frizette Stakes (G1) and Breeder's Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G2T).
Always Shopping is one of two stakes winners from her dam from four foals. The other, Mo Shopping, won the 2018 Light Hearted Stakes at Delaware Park and a start later ran third in the Delaware Oaks (G3).
An unraced 2-year-old out of Stopshoppingmaria, Momaria, is also in training.