This Side Up: Oasis or Mirage?

e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Pink Hue (f, 2, Mendelssohn–Involved, by Speightstown) was a bit short of running room when push was about to come to shove in Sunday's sixth race going two turns over the Saratoga turf course, but once the daylight came, the $310,000 Keeneland September graduate went through her gears and ran up the score to defeat the well-meant Xigera (Nyquist) by 2 3/4 resounding lengths...

e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' Pink Hue (f, 2, Mendelssohn–Involved, by Speightstown) was a bit short of running room when push was about to come to shove in Sunday's sixth race going two turns over the Saratoga turf course, but once the daylight came, the $310,000 Keeneland September graduate went through her gears and ran up the score to defeat the well-meant Xigera (Nyquist) by 2 3/4 resounding lengths. Guided down onto the fence after brushing with a rival at the break, Pink Hue got a foothold at the fence from fourth as La Grotte (Bolt d'Oro) led from Xigera, who looked a bit reluctant to settle for Julien Leparoux. The latter–off at 6-1 from a 15-1 morning line–was given a very confident steer and tried to pinch the race in upper stretch, but Pink Hue, locked away inside but traveling strongly passing the quarter pole, found a gap three off the fence with a bit more than an eighth of a mile to gallop and she was off and gone from there. Pink Hue was the workmate of race five winner Raging Sea in the lead-up to this debut. Pink Hue is the seventh individual winner for her freshman sire (by Scat Daddy) and the Keeneland September topper's first to be named a 'Rising Star'. She is a half-sister to Godolphin's Man of Promise (Into Mischief, $560,378), impressive winner of the G3 Nad al Sheba Turf Sprint at Meydan this past March and subsequently third in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint. Involved, a two-time winner at the races, is a half-sister to dual Grade III winner Skip to the Stone (Skip Trial) and to the stakes-winning My Heavenly Sign (Forest Camp), dam of SP Avasarala (Point of Entry). Not covered during the 2020 breeding season, Involved sold for just $8,000 at the 2021 Keeneland January Sale and most recently produced a colt by Audible.