Pletcher's Fillies Shine in Oaks
Rags to Riches Takes Kentucky Derby's Counterpart; Octave Second
While Todd Pletcher's Derby Five failed to fire, his filly entries in the Kentucky Oaks handled an off track to finish 1-2. Rags to Riches has won four in a row.
Todd Pletcher's best chance to win the Kentucky Derby escaped to another race, the day's counterpart filly race, the $500,000 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs May 5.
While Circular Quay (key), Any Given Saturday, Sam P., Scat Daddy, and Cowtown Cat finished 6th, 8th, ninth, 18th, and 20th, respectively, out of twenty Derby entries, Pletcher's filly, Rags to Riches, romped in the Oaks.
Tabor and Pletcher: A Winning Team
Owned by Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith, Rags to Riches ran as the favorite in the filly competition. Octave, another Pletcher trainee ridden by John Velazquez, placed. Velazquez is Pletcher's top jockey. Rags to Riches, with Garrett Gomez aboard, won her fourth consecutive race. She was this year's Santa Anita Oaks champion, as well.
Tabor and Pletcher have teamed on many winning entries over the last ten years. Tabor was one of Pletcher's first full time clients when Pletcher left the stable of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas to establish his own quarters in 1995. Pletcher currently schools 200 horses.
Rags to Riches drew off by 4-1/2 lengths in the Oaks, displaying a powerful move when asked by Gomez at the front end of the stretch. The race featured fourteen fillies in the annual 1-1/8 miles contest.
Gomez mentored Rags to Riches through the backstretch in fifth position, out of traffic four wide. The filly gained ground on the front pack, rating professionally under Gomez's direction. She had power in the tank when push came to shove, motoring to victory in time of 1:49.99.
No Challenge from Dreaming of Anna
Dreaming of Anna, a money leading filly of the season, went in as a second favorite, but had no answer to Rags to Riches' sprint through the lane. Fading to sixth, Dreaming of Anna was chased by High Heels, Mistical Plan, and Cotton Blossom in the earliest going.
Last fall, Dreaming of Anna captured plenty of attention in winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies race. In the late spring, however, she's been running second best to Rags to Riches, who started 2007 as a maiden.
Adversity Handled Well
Rags to Riches overcame all adversity in the Kentucky Oaks, Pletcher said. The really good runners always handle adverse conditions, he added. The filly had an outside post, breaking from gate number 11, and had never raced on a sloppy track. Pletcher feared the speed horses would catch a fast inside track from their rail posts.
Jockey Gomez said he hoped to get out of the gate smoothly with the filly and find a spot once the speed horses cleared the path. He commented that his filly seemed to express relief once she got out from between competitors, where she didn't appear to be comfortable. Running between horses was another circumstance she hadn't previously experienced.
Pletcher's stable is a winner that has propelled him to the nation's top trainer status the last three years.
