Harmonize brought up a cross-country Grade I double for the Bill Mott barn as she knifed her way between rivals in the final 100 yards and dove across the line to best Decked Out and Stays In Vegas.
After breaking her maiden by four lengths in last year's P. G. Johnson S. at Saratoga, the $80,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase returned to the scene of her sale a little more than a year prior, coming from 11th in the latter stages to eke out a neck success. Seventh as a 9-2 chance behind Catch a Glimpse (City Zip) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, she returned to action with a 3/4-length success in Gulfstream's Sanibel Island H. Mar. 26, then was third to Catch a Glimpse in the GIII Edgewood S. at Churchill May 6. Beaten a half-length into second by Time and Motion (Tapit) in the June 5 Wonder Again S. at Belmont, she was an even sixth to today's GII Lake Placid S. favorite when last seen in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S. July 9.
Harmonize settled in the latter third of the Del Mar Oaks field while two or three paths away from the inside as Lady Valeur (Ire) (Multiplex {GB}) overcame an awkward dispatch to take them along at a comfortable clip while tracked to her outside by Stays In Vegas. Allowed to creep up into about mid-division entering the second turn, Harmonize was full of run, as she was held together by Junior Alvarado, making his own Del Mar debut, on the swing for home. Stays In Vegas overtook Lady Valeur in the lane and looked on her way to victory, but Harmonize found a split between GII San Clemente H. heroine Mokat (Uncle Mo) and Decked Out and stuck her head across the line first.
“We already faced the very nice fillies on the East Coast, Catch a Glimpse and Time and Motion, and we thought coming here would be a good opportunity to win a Grade I,” commented assistant trainer Rodolphe Brisset. “We got a dream trip and got there at the wire, so that's very good.”
Pedigree Notes:
The seventh Grade I winner for her late sire–and second in this race (Lady of Shamrock, 2012)–Harmonize is the lone black-type winner for her dam, an unraced full-sister to GSWs Waldoboro and Tara Roma, as well as Maya (Capote), the dam of MGSW & MGISP Al Khali (Medaglia d'Oro). Hailing from the deeper female family of the late GISW Somali Lemonade (Lemon Drop Kid), MGSW Hungry Island (More Than Ready) and GSW Soaring Empire (Empire Maker), Harmonize is kin to a 2-year-old colt of this year by Hat Trick (Jpn) and a yearling colt by Animal Kingdom consigned by Brookdale Sales as hip 2137 to next month's Keeneland September sale. Mesa Fresca was most recently bred to Medaglia d'Oro. The winner is bred 4×4 to Storm Cat.
Saturday, Del Mar
DEL MAR OAKS PRESENTED BY THE JOCKEY CLUB-GI, $301,725, DMR, 8-20, 3yo, f, 1 1/8mT, 1:48.71, fm.
1–&HARMONIZE, 122, f, 3, by Scat Daddy
1st Dam: Mesa Fresca, by Sky Mesa
2nd Dam: Mayan Maiden, by Lyphard
3rd Dam: Chic Shirine, by Mr. Prospector
($80,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Larkin Armstrong; B-Jack Swain
(KY); T-William I. Mott; J-Junior Alvarado. $180,000. Lifetime
Record: GISW, 9-4-2-1, $484,260. Werk Nick Rating: A+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”brookdale-congratsjackswain”][bullet ad=”brookdale-foaled-raised-and-sold”][bullet ad=”kbif-g1″]2–Decked Out, 122, f, 3, Street Boss–Once Around, by You and
I. ($45,000 Wlg '13 KEENOV; $75,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Big
Chief Racing, LLC, Head of Plains Partners LLC & Gene A. Voss;
B-Haymarket Farm LLC (KY); T-J. Keith Desormeaux. $60,000.[bullet ad=”irt-shell”][bullet ad=”bsw-bloodstock-purchased-privately”][bullet ad=”selectsales-shell”]3–Stays in Vegas, 122, f, 3, City Zip–Double Jackpot, by Broken
Vow. ($40,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Jungle Racing LLC, KMN
Racing LLC & LNJ Foxwoods; B-John McCormack (KY); T-Jerry
Hollendorfer. $36,000.[bullet ad=”carabloodstock-graduate”]Margins: HD, NO, HF. Odds: 3.60, 9.00, 5.80.
Also Ran: Mokat, Tin Type Gal, Barleysugar (Ire), Mines and Magic, Cheekaboo, Lady Valeur (Ire), Lynne's Legacy. Scratched: Mrs. Norris.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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