Restless Rider Leaves No Doubt in Alcibiades

Ken McPeek was seeing the intangibles from Restless Rider, the ones that make trainers use words like "special" and "freakish" when describing certain horses in their care.

She would work fast, too fast according to her conditioner's stopwatch, only to have the rider relay that she was doing it well within herself. She would take up sharply in just her second career start and stakes debut and still go on to win by 11 1/4 lengths. Her sample size was extremely small, but she was already behaving in a manner that caused her trainer to mention her in the same breath as some of the heralded distaffers that have passed through his care.

On Oct. 5, in her first try around two turns facing a full field of 13 other juvenile fillies, Restless Rider gave McPeek all the more reason to put a high amount of praise on her name. The daughter of Distorted Humor  took command coming into the head of the lane and drew off under cool handling from jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. to capture the $400,000 Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) by 2 1/2 lengths at Keeneland.

"Well, (multiple grade 1 winner and former McPeek trainee) Take Charge Lady was a freak in her own right, and this filly is in that realm," McPeek said of the filly who gave him his fourth win in the Alcibiades. "She's got some work to do but … she's taken us there. Good horses do that."

With a pair of wins at Churchill Downs already under her belt and a healthy education already in her young career, Restless Rider figures to head into the Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) Nov. 2 with a more-than-viable chance to vie for favoritism in the 1 1/16-mile test.

After breaking her maiden at first asking beneath the Twin Spires June 8, the gray/roan filly put in an eye-popping effort in the June 30  Debutante Stakes when she cantered to a daylight score despite having to take up abruptly around a foe around the seven sixteenth pole. In the weeks since running second to Sippican Harbor in the Sept. 1 Spinaway Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, she continued to flaunt her upside—almost a little too much for McPeek's comfort.

"She is really, really special. When you work her in company with another horse, she'll stalk and just blow them away. You don't have to ask her to do much," McPeek said. "She had two works this summer, one at Saratoga and one here (five furlongs in a bullet :59 2/5 Sept. 22) that I wasn't real pleased with my rider because she went so fast. But he was like, 'I'm just sitting still, she does this for fun.'"

Restless Rider came out of that bullet move with a slight cough, causing McPeek to delay her final pre-Alcibiades move until Oct. 1. Shortly after breaking from post 3 in Friday's 1 1/16-mile race, she further alleviated any concern that she was bringing anything but her best form against her latest group of foes.

"Because we were inside, we had to make a tactical decision on what we were going to do going into that first turn, and I told (Hernandez) to gamble a little bit and let her run a bit away from there," McPeek said. "I didn't want to be laying 6-7-8 and having to wiggle her way through traffic, and I know she's fast enough to be able to go."

With 13-1 shot Meadow Dance hustling to the front to put down opening fractions of :22.86 and :46.52, Restless Rider rated third in a ground-saving spot along the rail, with Lady T N T to her outside in second. The 6-5 favorite then advanced up to second as they reached three-quarters in 1:11.58 and loomed up to overtake the pacesetter leaving the final turn.

Her pedigree lends itself to handling a route of ground, and Restless Rider had no issue stretching her legs over the added distance. Under a hand ride, she crossed the wire in 1:44.23 over a track rated fast, with Reflect and Meadow Dance taking place and show honors.

"She's a smart filly. She knows what she's doing out there," Hernandez said. "First time two turns, but there looked like quite a few fast fillies in here. She's the type of filly where she's got the class to her, and she was able to put herself into position to make the trip as easy as it looked."

Chocolate Kisses was fourth, and Boujie Girl rounded out the top five.

Owned by Three Chimneys Farm and Fern Circle Stables, Restless Rider improved her record to three wins from four starts, with $401,360 in earnings. She was purchased by her ownership group for $150,000 out of the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and was bred by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings out of the Unbridled's Song mare Silky Serenade.

"She is special. That race at Churchill kind of showed you what she could do," said Doug Cauthen, vice chairman of Three Chimneys. "That was the whole package there. All credit to Kenny—he's been patient with her. She just did it all today."

Video: Darley Alcibiades S. (G1)