Yuvetsi Wins First Stakes in Santa Lucia
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Photo: Benoit Photo
Yuvetsi and jockey Tyler Baze win the Santa Lucia at Santa Anita
The $75,000 Santa Lucia Stakes featured a pair of horses who are going in different directions, and at the quarter pole, they were alongside each other.
On the inside, grade 1 winner Vale Dori, who once won five straight graded races in Southern California and came a neck short of defeating champion Stellar Wind twice, began to tire. On the outside, Hronis Racing's Yuvetsi, in her first start around two turns on dirt, was pulling away.
The stretch run ahead was all Yuvetsi's. Vale Dori continued on with class and was only passed late by Bernina Star for second, while the 4-year-old Bodemeister filly trained by John Sadler kicked home to the wire under jockey Tyler Baze to win by 2 1/2 lengths June 22 at Santa Anita Park.
In the third start of her 6-year-old season, Vale Dori was asked for run—and even shown the whip—by jockey Mike Smith out of the inside post in the seven-horse field, and she took command as she entered the first turn of the 1 1/16-mile test. She set fractions of :23.42, :47.32, and 1:12.37, with Yuvetsi never far off her hip, in a stalking position on the outside. With those two on even terms in the final turn, the result became clear, and Yuvetsi finished off the distance in 1:45.39.
More than 10 lengths behind Vale Dori came Bob Baffert-trained stablemate Life's Blessings in fourth, followed by Dreamarcher and Dalsaros. Mistressofthenight walked to the finish after being pulled up in the stretch.
The Santa Lucia was the second stakes try for Yuvetsi, who has been sprinting on dirt in Southern California since December. She began her career on the grass and broke her maiden sprinting down the hillside turf course in November 2016. On dirt, she won an optional-claiming allowance in January at Santa Anita, finished second to graded stakes winner Spectator at the next allowance level March 18, then finished third behind Marley's Freedom twice—in an April 20 allowance and in the May 27 Desert Stormer Stakes (G3).
Bred in Kentucky by Frankfort Park Farm, out of the Speightstown mare Mother Ruth, Yuvetsi has a 3-3-2 record from 11 starts and $161,930 in earnings. She was a $420,000 purchase out of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2015.