Saturday Wrap-Up

PA-bred (but Canadian raced) Notgivinmyloveaway won the seven-furlong Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes at Philly Park today by five lengths. The Not For Love colt, out of the Fast Play mare Fastria, paid $11.80 to win over Sweet Sugar ($7.20 place) and favorite Double Down Vinman ($2.40 show). Someone must have known something about Notgivinmyloveaway, as the DRF noted that, in the final two minutes before post, his odds dropped from 9-1 to 9-2…hmmmm. Some interesting connections here between Notgivinmyloveaway and another two-year-old colt Jen over at ThoroughBlog discussed today, the highly-touted City Zip colt Jazz Nation (out of the Dixieland Band mare Jazz Star)—Notgivinmyloveaway’s second dam is Jazz Nation’s third dam, Istria (Germany’s Champion Two-year-old Filly in 1979). She has produced some nice runners and nice producers—good family. Both two-year-olds share Mr. Prospector roots in their sire line too.

The favorite Double Down Vinman went to the early lead, but couldn’t stay on, finishing third. He looked to be the Smarty Jones-Hard Spun in this group, especially after breaking his maiden at six furlongs in early September by 12 lengths at Philly. Nice dam line too, out of the Smart Strike mare Christmas Strike whose dam Christmas Gift is also the dam of grade 1 winner three-year-old filly Christmas Kid.

The Toddster had two good-looking two-year-olds win on turf today: Cowboy Cal (Giant’s Causeway out of the Seeking the Gold mare Texas Tammy) won the 8.5 furlong Laurel Futurity, while Sea Chanter (War Chant out of Easy Goer mare Smooth Charmer) took the 8 furlong G3 Miesque Stakes at Hollywood, under a beautiful ride by Mike Smith. His Atoned (Repent out of the Icecapade mare Amidst) lost by a neck to Bill Mott-trained Court Vision in the G2 Remsen at Aqueduct. Mott also won the G2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct, with the Empire Maker filly Mushka.

Benny the Bull looked powerful winning the six-furlong G1 De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel in 1:09.86. Talent Search hung on for second after setting blazing early fractions, but I was most impressed with the lone filly in the race, three-year-old Miraculous Miss who was the best of the rest, after making a sweeping move from last place, passing five, to get up for third.

Autobahn Girl (A.P. Indy out of the Cure the Blues mare Saoirse), who earlier this year looked very promising but failed horribly in the G1 Kentucky Oaks back in May, returned today with a win in the non-graded eight-furlong Pago Hop Stakes on turf at Fair Grounds. Amazing, she went off at 25-1, thus paying $61.80 for the win. She shifted from Nick Zito’s barn in June to trainer Malcolm Pierce; her first race for him was bad…a last place finish in the non-graded 6.5 furlong Ruling Angle Stakes on Woodbine’s Polytrack on October 24. Looking forward to seeing her make some noise next year…her grade 3-winning dam Saoirse hit her best stride at four, and her second dam Apelia was a multiple graded-stakes winner at 4 and 5.