Brown's Search Results, The Grass Is Blue Lead Gazelle
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Susie Raisher
Search Results wins the Busher Invitational Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack
A race before starting Crowded Trade and Risk Taking in the April 3 Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by Resorts World Casino (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack for Klaravich Stables, trainer Chad Brown starts tandem shooting with The Grass Is Blue and Search Results in the $250,000 Gazelle Stakes (G3).
The two 3-year-old fillies are the only stakes winners among the eight entries in the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep, which awards points on a 100-40-20-10 scale. The race is at the Oaks distance of 1 1/8 miles.
Though untested around two turns, Klaravich Stables' Search Results looms a clear favorite in a race with little pace. She won her debut when sprinting six furlongs in January at Gulfstream Park, followed by the half-length score over favored Miss Brazil in the one-mile Busher Invitational March 6 at Aqueduct. The Flatter filly never switched leads down the stretch.
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In two starts this year, Louis Lazzinnaro's The Grass Is Blue won the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct Jan. 24 and then was third in the Busher, beaten 6 1/4 lengths by Search Results. Last year at 2, the Broken Vow filly won two of four starts.
The Grass Is Blue returns after her win in the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack
Brown has won the Gazelle twice with Awesome Feather (2011) and Lewis Bay (2016).
Three Gazelle participants are racing on dirt for the first time—Mia Martina , Alwayz Late , and Song of Innocence .
Mia Martina won the first two races of her career, both on turf in South Florida, before rallying for fourth in the Florida Oaks (G3T) at 1 1/16 miles on grass at Tampa Bay Downs March 6.
The Graham Motion-trained Mia Martina, owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gianni Fittipaldi, has bloodlines that warrant testing her on dirt. Out of the stakes-placed Proud Citizen mare Proud and Charming , she is by Not This Time , winner of the 2016 Iroquois Stakes (G3) on dirt and the runner-up to Classic Empire in that year's Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) before he was retired due to injury.
"We talked about it and thought this will be a good time to find out how she handles the dirt," Motion said. "She has a dirt pedigree. She's a very straight-forward filly who looks like the farther she goes, the better, so we thought the mile and an eighth might suit her."
Magic Oaks' Hybrid Eclipse and Three Diamonds Farm's Army Wife are both last-out allowance optional claiming winners on dirt, the former Feb. 25 at Laurel Park and the latter March 13 at Gulfstream Park.
The field is completed by Beach Haven Thoroughbreds' Maracuja , who was beaten by Hybrid Eclipse in a Jan. 23 maiden race at Aqueduct before victorious in a follow-up maiden start Feb. 21. All three of her starts have been in sprints.
"She acts like two turns shouldn't be an issue but it's a big ask going from 6 1/2 furlongs to a mile and an eighth and stepping up to a big race like this," trainer Rob Atras said.
Aqueduct Racetrack, Saturday, April 03, 2021, Race 9Entries: Gazelle S. (G3)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Hybrid Eclipse (KY)
Jose L. Ortiz
118
Linda Rice
10/1
2
2Maracuja (KY)
Kendrick Carmouche
118
Rob Atras
15/1
3
3Mia Martina (FL)
Junior Alvarado
118
H. Graham Motion
6/1
4
4Army Wife (KY)
Trevor McCarthy
118
Michael J. Maker
6/1
5
5The Grass Is Blue (KY)
Manuel Franco
120
Chad C. Brown
4/1
6
6Alwayz Late (KY)
Tyler Gaffalione
118
William I. Mott
8/1
7
7Song of Innocence (KY)
Eric Cancel
118
Jonathan Thomas
30/1
8
8Search Results (KY)
Irad Ortiz, Jr.
120
Chad C. Brown
1/1
