By Christie DeBernardis
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Champagne Anyone (Street Sense) finally put it all together Saturday with a mild upset in the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks, earning a spot in the starting gate for the upcoming GI Kentucky Oaks. Dispatched at 7-1 while adding blinkers here, the bay stalked from second as Cookie Dough (Brethren) ticked off opening splits of :23.80 and :47.58. Drawing even with the pacesetter turning for home, Champagne Anyone took control in mid-stretch and held off a late rally down the outside from favored flashy debut winner Dunbar Road (Quality Road) to score. The gutsy Cookie Dough held third and previously undefeated second choice Point of Honor (Curlin) got up for fourth.
“I think the blinkers made her more tractable in the race,” said winning conditioner Ian Wilkes. “She's a filly who doesn't like [jockey] Chris [Landeros] to ask her to be in the race. I had to do something to where she took Chris into the race. I wasn't worried where she was today. I didn't mean that I needed to be on the lead. It didn't mean I had to be second. I left it up to Chris to be where I wanted to be. That's the idea with the blinkers–to get her to travel more and not dislike what Chris was doing on her.”
As for what's next, Wilkes said, “[The Kentucky Oaks] has been our whole goal. We made the plan–we went in the Golden Rod last year to get experience and come back and start at seven-eighths, a mile, a mile and a sixteenth. I felt the filly needed racing. She's a filly that's still learning. If I ran her once, twice, she wouldn't be ready for the Oaks, that's why I felt I had to get more racing, more miles, more racing into her.”
“They put blinkers on her and we anticipated being a little bit more aggressive with her instead of falling out,” Landeros said. “I got her into a gear early and she went along beautifully today. She's so naturally gifted. She still doesn't know when to completely lay it down. But today's a big step forward and I think the best is yet to come for her.”
A second-out graduate at Ellis in August, overcoming trouble, Champagne Anyone followed suit with an optional claimer score trying two turns for the first time at Keeneland in October, defeating subsequent GIII Tempted S. winner Oxy Lady (Oxbow) into third. Closing out her juvenile campaign with a fourth in a sloppy renewal of the GII Golden Rod S. at Churchill Nov. 24, she closed well to be third behind undefeated 'TDN Rising Star' Feedback (Violence) in the GIII Forward Gal S. here Feb. 2. The $70,000 KEESEP buy entered this off a third to 51-1 longshot Jeltrin (Tapizar) and Cookie Dough in the local GII Davona Dale S. Mar. 2. (Click here for a story by Brian DiDonato about the winning connections).
Pedigree Notes:
Champagne Anyone is the 29th graded winner and 59th black-type scorer for her sire Street Sense. The winner's dam Lucevan is a half-sister to Argentinian champion and U.S. Grade I winner Miss Loren (Arg) (Numerous) and MGSW Mr. Light (Arg) (Numerous), who at one point held the world-record time for a turf mile (1:31.41), set at Gulfstream in 2005. Her most recent produce is a yearling colt by Wilburn. The winner is bred similarly to Justify's GSW half-brother The Lieutenant, GSW Cigar Street and SW & GISP Elnaawi.
Saturday, Gulfstream Park
GULFSTREAM PARK OAKS-GII, $250,000, Gulfstream, 3-30, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m, 1:43.47, ft.
1–CHAMPAGNE ANYONE, 122, f, 3, by Street Sense&log=">Street Sense
1st Dam: Lucevan, by Ghostzapper
2nd Dam: Luminare (Arg), by Forlitano (Arg)
3rd Dam: Luminaria (Arg), by Pepenador
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($70,000 Ylg
'17 KEESEP). O-Six Column Stables, LLC & Randall L. Bloch;
B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Ian R.
Wilkes; J-Chris Landeros. $153,450. Lifetime Record: 7-3-0-3,
$267,950. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Werk Nick Rating: A.
2–Dunbar Road, 122, f, 3, Quality Road–Gift List, by Bernardini.
($350,000 Ylg '17 KEESEP). O-Peter M. Brant; B-Jeffery J.
Drown (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $49,500.
3–Cookie Dough, 122, f, 3, Brethren–Brooke's Valentine, by
Fusaichi Pegasus. O/B-Arindel (FL); T-Stanley I. Gold. $24,750.
Margins: HF, 3/4, 3/4. Odds: 7.60, 1.30, 2.90.
Also Ran: Point of Honor, Safta, Bella Ciao. Scratched: Shacklette. 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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