When last seen at Grade I level, Alex and Joann Lieblong's Embellish the Lace (Super Saver) was thrown to the wolves in the June 27 Mother Goose S. and dueled on a sizzling pace before fading away tamely to finish a well-beaten ninth behind Include Betty (Include). Undeterred and of the mindset that the bay filly would appreciate the 10-furlong distance of Saturday's GI Alabama S. at Saratoga, she was allowed to take her place, and, well-rated on the engine by Javier Castellano, Embellish the Lace rewarded her connections' confidence with a 1 1/4-length defeat of a game I'm A Chatterbox (Munnings). Favored Curalina (Curlin) was third.
“I didn't expect her to be on the lead but nobody went,” commented Castellano, riding the Alabama winner for the second time in three years (Princess of Sylmar, 2013) and third time overall (Pine Island, 2006). “We put up good numbers all the way, and it paid off. I thought there was more speed in the race but nobody wanted to go. I tried to rate a little bit the first turn, but nobody wanted to take it, so I took it. When I asked her a little bit she took off.”
Saturday, Saratoga
ALABAMA S.-GI, $600,000, SAR, 8-22, 3yo, f, 1 1/4m, 2:01.97, ft.
1–#@&EMBELLISH THE LACE, 121, f, 3, by Super Saver
1st Dam: Expanse (SP), by Distant View
2nd Dam: Dial a Trick, by Phone Trick
3rd Dam: Ice Fantasy, by It's Freezing
($320,000 Ylg '13 KEESEP). O-Alex & JoAnn
Lieblong; B-WinStar Farm LLC (KY); T-Anthony W.
Dutrow; J-Javier Castellano. $360,000. Lifetime
Record: 5-3-0-0, $413,340. *1/2 to Afleet Express
(Afleet Alex), GISW, $835,140; and Reporting for
Duty (Deputy Commander), MSW, $466,846.
**Second GISW for sire (by Maria's Mon). Click for
the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: A+.
[bullet ad=”taylor-made-tm-for-you”][bullet ad=”taylormade-buywinstar”][bullet ad=”woodford-hip1269-keesep15″][bullet ad=”kbif-g1″]2–I'm a Chatterbox, 121, f, 3, Munnings">Munnings–Chit Chatter,
by Lost Soldier. ($30,000 RNA Ylg '13 KEESEP).
O/B-Fletcher & Carolyn Gray (KY); T-J. Larry Jones.
$120,000.
[bullet ad=”ricehorse-graduate”]3–Curalina, 121, f, 3, Curlin">Curlin–Whatdreamsrmadeof, by
Graeme Hall. ($125,000 Ylg '13 KEESEP). O-Eclipse
Thoroughbred Partners; B-CASA Farms I LLC (KY);
T-Todd A. Pletcher. $60,000.
[bullet ad=”denali-bred-by-casa-farms-sold-by-denali”]Margins: 1 1/4, 3HF, HF. Odds: 6.00, 4.60, 2.05.
Also Ran: Danette, Include Betty, Lovely Maria, Sweetgrass.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
At $320,000, the filly that would become Embellish the Lace was the most expensive of six purchases for Alex and JoAnn Lieblong at the 2013 Keeneland September sale, and they reinforced their fondness for the first-crop progeny of Super Saver in early 2014, going to $675,000 for a daughter of Melissa Jo (Fusaichi Pegasus) at the OBS March Sale and $600,000 for a son of Rateeba (Sky Mesa) at the Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale 13 days later. The former, now raced as High Dollar Woman, became a graded winner in the GIII Indiana Oaks July 18, while the latter, I Spent It, annexed the GII Saratoga Special in his second career start 370 days back. Embellish the Lace took their strike rate to three-for-three Saturday afternoon.
Embellish the Lace looked like a fish out of water in her Nov. 16 debut over six furlongs of the Aqueduct main track, as she ducked out to the three path for no apparent reason on the turn and swerved in when struck right-handed at the eighth pole and was beaten 14 lengths into fifth. She was set a much simpler task when trying a two-turn mile for the first time at Parx Dec. 13, and she duly obliged as the 3-2 chalk, walking in by 10 1/4 lengths. Given the better part of six months off, she picked up where she left off with a pacesetting 13 3/4-length demolition of a first-level Pimlico allowance June 4, but she found the waters much deeper in the Mother Goose and had run her race by the time they'd reached the stretch.
Embellish the Lace looked to be the chief speed of the seven runners signed on for the Alabama, but her job was made that much easier when I'm A Chatterbox, who made every yard of the running before being disqualified to second behind Curalina in the GI CCA Oaks July 26, bobbled ever so slightly leaving the gate. Instead of rushing that one up, Florent Geroux allowed I'm A Chatterbox to settle in centerfield, leaving Curlina to prompt Embellish the Lace through even sectionals of :24.03 and :48:38. The Tony Dutrow trainee threw in another internal quarter-mile in a steady-as-she-goes :24.48, and Curalina and a three-wide GI Kentucky Oaks winner Lovely Maria (Majesticperfection) tried to make a race of it at the head of the lane. But, refusing to yield and doing her best Black Tie Affair impression, Embellish the Lace kept finding on the engine and proved best in the finish. I'm A Chatterbox saved ground after her slow dispatch, came out at the head of the stretch and finished well without truly menacing the winner.
“I always hoped of winning a race like that, and when it comes, it's just so gratifying, so humbling, so magical,” the winning conditioner commented. “And special is a great word which sums up all that.”
The second Saratoga Grade I winner for her dam and for her sire, Embellish the Lace is out of a half-sister to MGSW & GISP Eye of the Tiger (American Chance) and SW & MGSP Wildwood Flower (Langfuhr), the dam of TDN Rising Star and GISW Materiality (Afleet Alex) and GSW & GISP My Miss Sophia (Unbridled's Song). The stakes-placed Expanse has a yearling colt of this year by Bodemeister, who is being consigned to the Keeneland September sale by Woodford Thoroughbreds. She was bred this past winter to Pioneerof the Nile.
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