Tricky Escape Wins Third Straight Stakes in Ramsey Farm

Jon Marshall's Tricky Escape has shown she can run well on all kinds of surfaces, so it wasn't much of a surprise when the 5-year-old Hat Trick mare battled to the wire to win the $400,000 Ramsey Farm Stakes Sept. 13 over the unique turf course at Kentucky Downs.

Tricky Escape's game head victory over Mom's On Strike in the 1 5/16-mile Ramsey Farm was her third straight stakes win and fifth stakes score overall. She started her streak for trainer Lynn Ashby with a closing 1 1/2-length win on the Delaware Park turf in the July 7 Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes (G3T), then won the off-the-turf Fasig-Tipton Waya Stakes by 3 3/4 lengths in frontrunning fashion Aug. 12 at Saratoga Race Course.

She previously won the Cardinal Handicap (G3) in the slop at Churchill Downs and the Violet Stakes (G3T) on the grass at Monmouth Park, both in 2017.

In Thursday's Ramsey Farm, under jockey Chris DeCarlo, Tricky Escape went to the front early and set fractions of :26.43, :52.86, and 1:17.78 on the firm Kentucky Downs turf, but dropped back to fifth, 2 3/4 lengths behind leader Res Ipsa, through a mile in 1:42.11.

Mom's On Strike, who closed from 10th, held a length advantage with a furlong to run, but Tricky Escape showed her determination in the stretch. The dark bay mare fought to the wire and edged Mom's On Strike to finish off the distance in 2:13.40.

"I think she knows where the wire is. The plan wasn't to be in front, but I didn't want to take a lot of energy out of her by trying to wrangle her back," DeCarlo said. "She got clear a little bit, she kind of relaxed, and I just rode the race from there and waited as long as I could."

Bred in Kentucky by Robert B. Trussell Jr. and John T.L. Jones III, out of the Petionville mare Island Escape, Tricky Escape now has a 7-5-3 record and $794,080 in earnings from 19 starts.

"She takes her racetrack with her," Ashby said. "As Chris said, she is very special. We do train on all different terrains with her, and she takes to it. If she doesn't, she'll come back next time and go, 'Oh yeah, this is what I like.' We train her on the hills. We train her cross-country. We train her on the turf course, on the dirt. It is amazing how versatile she truly is."

A race prior, former claimer Angaston earned his first stakes win in the $300,000 Franklin-Simpson at 6 1/2 furlongs. The Denman gelding emerged as the field exited the turn and surged in the stretch to just hold off closer Majestic Dunhill by a neck under jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. in a final time of 1:17.45 for the race restricted to 3-year-olds.