By Mike Kane
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.–Appropriately enough, Senza Parole's (Gun Runner) name translates to “at a loss for words,” which could describe the reaction to her jaw-dropping victory Friday in the first race at Saratoga Race Course.
Not only did she finish 7 3/4 lengths ahead of 4-5 favorite Stunner (Girvin), Senza Parole completed the six furlongs in the $100,000 maiden special weight race for 2-year-old fillies in a sharp 1:09.84. She paid $9.40 as the 7-2 second choice in the field of seven. With Saratoga's leading rider, Irad Ortiz, Jr., pretty much along as a passenger, Senza Parole earned 'TDN Rising Star' status, the 14th for her oh-so-successful sire. She was trainer Chad Brown's seventh 2-year-old open maiden special weight winner of the meet.
“She had been training super. I've never seen this filly work bad,” Brown said. “I was very excited to get her started and just appreciate Don Alberto, the team there. They're really outstanding breeders. I'm very impressed with their horses, both buying them in the marketplace and the ones they sent me to train. They have a great program over there, a great farm with good land. You know when you get a homebred off the van from Don Alberto, it could be anything.”
Back at the mother ship in Lexington, the crew at Don Alberto thoroughly enjoyed watching how she so thoroughly handled the competition.
“Everyone at the farm was going nuts,” said COO Reed Ringler.
Ringler noted that Don Alberto had high expectations for the filly out of the Street Cry (Ire) mare Senza Te, but figured she might be better in longer races around two turns.
Without question Senza Parole was mighty tough in the one-turn, three-quarters of a mile test. After she was bumped a bit at the start, Ortiz had her sitting third, two lengths behind pacesetter Hay Evabody (Mitole), through a quarter mile in :22.52. When she reached the half-mile in :45.80, Senza Parole was a head in front and rolling. She had four-length lead at the top of the stretch and kept extending her advantage as Ortiz shook the reins.
“I expected her to run real well,” Brown said, “but even a debut like that would exceed any expectations for a first-time starter, especially at Saratoga when the races are so tough. There were trainers in here that liked their horses, so it's not like she drowned a mediocre group. There were good trainers in this race, and it sounded like they had good opinions about these horses. So, we'll see where it takes us.”
Senza Parole drifted out a bit coming off the turn as Stunner was making a run. Brown said that Ortiz told him it was by design.
“He said, 'I just came off there to make sure that if he was going to have to come, he was going to have to come far around me,'” Brown said. “And he said, 'In the end, it didn't matter, because when I asked her again, she just re-broke.'”
As dominant as she was, Brown said it was too early to think about the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
“She's got a long way to go,” he said. “She only broke her maiden, but we'll look for a prep race for her and I'll talk to the team at Don Alberto again. So appreciative that they chose this horse to send to me. We just love her. She's been such a nice horse to be around. You really appreciate these young horses that do everything you ask them to do every time, and the first time you ask them. She's very smart. She's very talented. I've been so proud of her as she went through all of her lessons with us, and got to her debut. She's become a barn favorite, even before she ran.”
We're SPEECHLESS! 🤯 Senza Parole, daughter of @Three_Chimneys stallion Gun Runner, breaks her maiden impressively in Race 1 under @iradortiz for Chad Brown. pic.twitter.com/8bffl7Cs1r
— NYRA (🎪) (@TheNYRA) August 23, 2024
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