Ready to Please stays steady in the stretch
Posted on Saturday, April 15, 2006
HOT SPRINGS — Unfortunately for Greg Norman — the thoroughbred owner — his horse doesn’t get a mulligan.
Ready to Please took full advantage of Miss Norman’s bizarre etiquette to win the $ 250, 000 Grade II Fantasy Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Friday afternoon at Oaklawn Park.
Ridden by Stewart Elliott, Re ady to Please f i nished 3 lengths in front of Miss Norman, a 41-1 long shot who held the lead before bolting turning for home and again inside the three-sixteenths pole.
“I really don’t know what happened at the quarter pole,” said Tony Farina, who was riding Miss Norman for the first time. “All of a sudden she ducked out and I had to grab hold of her and then she did it again.
“ It was shame because if she hadn’t done that, I think she would have won.”
Easily.
According to longtime press box observers, Miss Norman lost at least 10 lengths by losing momentum and ground.
Miss Norman bolted first when cracked right-handed by Farina, then veered even farther right in the upper stretch when Farina switched the whip to his left hand.
That left a fairway-sized hole for Elliott, and the lightly raced Ready to Please had no problem recording her third consecutive victory in her stakes and two-turn debut.
Somehow, Miss Norman regrouped and held second, a neck in front of Brownie Points. Ex Caelis finished 3 1 / 2 lengths farther back in fourth.
Sweet Fervor, 8-5 favorite Quiet Kim, Sweet Idea and Lady Danza completed the order of finish.
Ready to Please, the 7-2 third choice, paid $ 9. 80, $ 6 and $ 3. 80. Miss Norman, the longest price on the board, paid $ 27. 20 and $ 11. Brownie Points paid $ 3.
A claim of foul by Ex Caelis’ jockey, John Jacinto, against Miss Norman for interference late in the second turn was not allowed.
Carrying 117 pounds, Ready to Please covered 1 1 / 16 miles over fast track in 1: 45. 63. It was second-slowest Fantasy in the race’s history, only behind Hoso’s 1: 46 clocking in 1975.
Elliott, who has ridden a meet-high five stakes winners, said he sensed Miss Norman was having steering problems down the backstretch because Farina kept looking to his right.
“My filly rated kindly and settled back and then I saw the horse on the lead [Miss Norman ] getting out all the way,” said Elliott, who was riding Ready to Please for the first time. “I said, ‘This is perfect. Just stay right on the rail behind her.’
“ And there was no problem getting through.”
Miss Norman, who was racing in blinkers for the first time, hadn’t started since finishing seventh in the Grade I Frizette on Oct. 8 at Belmont Park in New York.
“I can’t believe she bore out like that,” said trainer Karin Long, who was saddling Miss Norman for the first time. “It is something we didn’t expect. If she runs straight, she would have won.”
Long said Miss Norman will be pointed toward the $ 500, 000 Grade I Kentucky Oaks on May 5 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.
Obviously, there will be a lot of time spent on the driving range first.
“Of course, between now and then, we must work on the problem that happened today,” Long said.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Ready to Please’s third victory in five lifetime starts increased her earnings to $ 196, 150.
James Scatuorchio, a retired Wall Street broker from Rumson, N. J., purchased Ready to Please for $ 270, 000 early last year.
Scatuorchio also raced Ready to Please’s sire, More Than Ready.
In her 3-year-old debut, Ready to Please broke her maiden Jan. 15 at Gulfstream in suburban Miami and was coming off a Feb. 24 entry-level allowance victory there.
Ready to Please finished third and fourth in her first two career starts last spring, but she had hooked eventual champion Folklore and eventual Grade II stakes winner Dance Daily.
Ready to Please was then freshened and didn’t race again in 2005.
“We were kind of disappointed,” Scatuorchio said. “Good races, but we thought she was better than that. Todd just said, ‘Let’s give her some time. I think she’s mentally not getting it.’ We brought her back this year and are really happy with the way she’s developed.”
Scatuorchio said Ready to Please is a candidate to run in the Kentucky Oaks, although the decision will be left up to Pletcher.
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