One fantastic day made up for six weeks of frustration this summer for trainer Jorge Abreu, who won three races on Saratoga’s New York Showcase Day program on Sunday capped by a 13-1 upset recorded by Moonage Daydream in the $200,000 Yaddo Stakes.
Moonage Daydream, coming out of a fourth-place finish in the Perfect Sting Stakes at Aqueduct on July 4, stalked Abreu’s other runner in the field, Venti Valentine, through six furlongs in 1:13.85. Under Jose Ortiz, Moonage Daydream took over nearing the quarter pole and was never seriously threatened in the lane as she finished 1 1/4 lengths clear of Marvelous Maude. It was a neck back to Whatlovelookslike.
Moonage Daydream, a daughter of Candy Ride, owned by Chris Larsen, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.71. She is the latest Stakes winner to have prepped at the famed Hidden Brook Florida training center in Williston, Fla.
This was the farthest Moonage Daydream had run, but Abreu said he was encouraged she could get the distance after getting beat just 1 3/4 lengths in the one-mile Perfect Sting.
“When she ran at Aqueduct she made the lead and she got a little tired towards the end and Jose told me you just got to try and relax her a little bit,” Abreu said. “I told Jose whatever you do, don’t make the lead with this filly, I don’t care if you have to stand up in the stirrups, do not make the lead and he did a good job.”
Ortiz, who earlier on the card won the Seeking the Ante Stakes on the Steve Asmussen-trained Accelerating, said it was not easy to get Moonage Daydream off horses early on.
“I had to wrestle with her in the first turn to take her back, but I did take her back. She settled on the backside. Three-eighths pole, I was traveling really well and I was very confident.”
-edited from www.drf.com
