Your Love Gets the Spotlight in Shine Again
Image:
Description:
Photo: Skip Dickstein
Your Love wins the Shine Again Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
Paul Pompa Jr.'s Your Love overtook Heavenly Score and Come Dancing in the stretch and held off a late-charging Cairenn to win the sixth running of the $100,000 Shine Again Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up Aug. 1 at Saratoga Race Course.
Off as the 2-1 second choice, Your Love broke alertly under Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano and stayed just off Come Dancing's early fractions of :22.51 for a quarter-mile and :45.69 for the half on the fast main track, with Heavenly Score in close pursuit.
Out of the turn, Your Love gained ground on a three-wide trip and gained the lead in midstretch under Castellano's right-handed whip. The Chad Brown trainee steadied to the wire, completing seven furlongs in 1:23.70 to defeat a rallying Cairenn by one length.
"I liked my horse today. I liked the way she did it," Castellano said. "I sat right off the pace a little bit. Two horses set the pace, and I was second, third, and that's what I was looking for. I just wanted to manage her in the last part of the race, and I think it worked out great today.
"The first time I rode the horse, I didn't know much about her, and I tried to split horses," he added. "I made a couple mistakes. I learned through the process, and I'm glad we got it done today."
Your Love earned her first stakes win and first victory in three tries at Saratoga. Bred in Kentucky by Claiborne Farm, the daughter of Flatter improved her record to four wins from eight starts, with $251,200 in earnings.
Cairenn, trained by Graham Motion, hit the wire one length ahead of the favorite Heavenly Score for second. Come Dancing, Impasse, Wonderment, Yorkiepoo Princess and Aura Rose completed the order of finish.