Fancy Dress Party, unbeaten but also largely untested through three starts, got the stiffest challenge of her racing career Sunday at Keeneland and responded gamely to turn back 'TDN Rising Star' Mother Mother for a narrow score in the GIII Beaumont S.
Debuting on this track in an off-the-turfer Oct. 26, the $280,000 Keeneland September graduate rated comfortably and ran away in the stretch. Racking up similar open-lengths scores in a Churchill allowance Nov. 24 and the restricted Glitter Woman S. Jan. 5 at Gulfstream, the dark bay was made the third choice in this scratched down field of five and surprisingly found herself on the lead under Luis Saez. Showing the way comfortably through splits of :22.57 and :45.55, she remained in hand midway around the turn while odds-on 'Rising Star' Feedback was put to a drive. Turning that foe away past the three-sixteenths pole, she soon encountered a challenge from rail-running Mother Mother, who appeared to have winning momentum at several instances in the final furlong. Fancy Dress Party would not be denied, however, and edged her rival on the wire. Feedback had to settle for third.
“The horses you expected to be the speed didn't really break well and looked like they might have been fighting the racetrack,” trainer Ben Colebrook said. “She was going so smooth and within herself that I was happy we were on the lead. I thought 'well, she's doing it' and looks to be running them off their feet. It wasn't the game plan, but credit to Luis for going with Plan B. I think if he takes her back, we don't win the race. It was an amazing ride.”
“I thought No. 2 [Mother Mother] was the speed,” Saez concurred. “But [Fancy Dress Party] broke so clean and so well, we stayed there [on the lead] and we took it. She was very comfortable. I felt like I had a lot of horse, and when we got to the stretch, she just kept going.”
Pedigree Notes:
Fancy Dress Party is the first graded stakes winner and second black-type winner out of The Schvagen, a $2,900 Fasig-Tipton October purchase in 2004 who won twice from four starts. Also responsible for the winner's full-brother SW Will Munnings, her most recent foal is a juvenile colt by Conveyance. Third dam Mea was a three-time graded stakes winner who produced Harper N Abbey, the unraced dam of Canadian champion Madman Diaries (Bring the Heat).
Sunday, Keeneland
BEAUMONT S. PRESENTED BY KEENELAND SELECT-GIII, $147,000, Keeneland, 4-7, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:28.18, sy.
1–FANCY DRESS PARTY, 118, f, 3, by Munnings&log=">Munnings
1st Dam: The Schvagen, by Matty G
2nd Dam: Mea, by Dayjur
3rd Dam: Meafara, by Meadowlake
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($280,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-LNJ
Foxwoods; B-Douglas S Arnold (KY); T-Ben Colebrook; J-Luis
Saez. $90,000. Lifetime Record: 4-4-0-0, $222,405. *Full to Will
Munnings, SW, $255,009. Werk Nick Rating: A++.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Mother Mother, 118, f, 3, Pioneerof the Nile–Mother, by LionHearted. 'TDN Rising Star' ($450,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP).
O-George Bolton, Barry Hall, Barry Lipman, Mark Mathiesen &
Andrew Molasky; B-T F Van Meter (KY); T-Bob Baffert.
$30,000.
3–Feedback, 118, f, 3, Violence–Honest Answer, by Tale of theCat. 'TDN Rising Star' ($85,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV). O-Klaravich
Stables, Inc.; B-Wolverton Mountain Farm LLC & Cameron
Wheeler (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $15,000.
Margins: HD, 1 1/4, 10 1/4. Odds: 2.70, 2.10, 0.90.
Also Ran: Another Time, Iva. Scratched: Queen of Beas, Shanghai Rain, Power Gal (Jpn). 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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