Hit The Bid Racing Stable, Morplay Racing and Randall Hartley\u2019s Italian Soiree surged up the inside for a thrilling second career victory in Friday\u2019s Grade 3, $175,000 Coronation Cup, a 5 1\/2-furlong Mellon turf sprint for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trained by John Terranova, the Uncle Mo bay graduated impressively in her 5 1\/2-furlong debut over the Belmont at the Big A dirt last July, and returning to that distance on turf in her seventh consecutive stakes outing proved to be successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we were waiting to try,\u201d said Tonja Terranova, assistant trainer and wife to John. \u201cWe really wanted to do this for a little while. Her mom was a turf sprinter. She ran really well in the turf races last year as a 2-year-old, but we thought shortening her up would really be what she wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, Italian Soiree was off-the-board in the one-mile 40-yard Listed Suncoast on dirt in February at Tampa Bay Downs, the one-mile turf Listed Memories of Silver in April at Aqueduct Racetrack and the six-furlong main track Jersey Girl last out on June 8 here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Piloted by Luis Saez, Italian Soiree exited post 2 sharply but settled in third position to the inside of Laurice as the top-two betting choices Make Haste and Cloe dueled through a sharp opening quarter-mile in 20.99 seconds on the good turf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Italian Soiree saved ground in the turn to the inside of the Junior Alvarado-piloted Laurice as that pair crept up closer to the leaders, who saw Cloe take command as Make Haste tired through a half-mile in 44.07.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the stretch, Cloe battled on the front end and Italian Soiree dove towards the new opening at the rail when Make Haste retreated, as Laurice launched her bid to the outside with Abientot rallying from the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday she broke from there and she put me in a good spot. I was a little worried at the top of stretch, I didn\u2019t really have anywhere to go but we found a way and she gave me a good turn of foot,\u201d said Saez. \u201cWhen we had the clear run, she gave me a good kick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italian Soiree passed Cloe late, as did Laurice and Abientot, but Saez\u2019s ride made the difference as that was the order of finish in a final time of 1:02.21.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The final margin of victory was one length to Laurice, who edged Abientot by a neck for place honors with Cloe completing the superfecta. Gata Brazil and Make Haste rounded out the order of finish. Spirited Boss, and main track-only entrants You\u2019ll Be Back, Twirling Beauty and Flat Out Time were scratched.<\/p>\n
Tonja Terranova added that she was encouraged by Italian Soiree\u2019s 3 1\/4-length fourth in the Grade 1 Natalma going one-mile on turf in September at Woodbine. She exited that performance to run a close fifth in the 1 1\/16-mile turf Grade 2 Jessamine in October at Keeneland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe went to Canada and ran really well and even at Keeneland against some of the top turf fillies in the country, but the distance was always the question with her,\u201d said Terranova. \u201cThe owners had [Kentucky] Oaks vibes, as everyone does, and we tried to stretch her at Tampa and had a little bit of a tough trip. But this is obviously what she wants to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
A logical next race could be the Listed $150,000 Galway, a 5 1\/2-furlong turf sprint for sophomore fillies, on Thursday, August 7 here.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bred in Kentucky by Repole Stable, Italian Soiree, a full-sister to stakes-winner Be Better, is out of the Smart Strike mare Social Call – who is a half-sister to graded stakes-winner Old Time Hockey. She was a $600,000 purchase at the 2024 OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Italian Soiree banked $96,250 in victory while improving her record to 8-2-1-0 and returning $31.20 for a $2 win bet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Live racing resumes Saturday at Saratoga with a 12-race program that includes the Grade 1 Dunkin\u2019 Diana [Race 11] and the Grade 2 Bowling Green [Race 8]. First post is\u00a012:35 p.m. Eastern.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saratoga Live\u00a0will present live coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.nyra.com\/saratoga\/racing\/tv-schedule\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the summer meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at\u00a0www.NYRABets.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hit The Bid Racing Stable, Morplay Racing and Randall Hartley\u2019s Italian Soiree surged up the inside for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-257346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114837018551262333","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}