By Alan Carasso
Lael Stables' She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) came with a stinging rally down the center of the E. P. Taylor turf course to punch her ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with an impressive victory in Saturday's GI Johnnie Walker Natalma S. at Woodbine. It marks the first elite-level scorer for the barn of Cherie DeVaux.
Sent off at odds of 8-1 while stretching out to the mile off a first-up graduation sprinting over the Ellis Park turf course July 16, the $240,000 Keeneland September acquisition was bumped at the break from an outside barrier and settled just behind midfield and in the slipstream of the well-backed Ozara (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), from the Summer S.-winning barn of Christophe Clement. Always traveling sweetly with that cover as Golden Canary (Medaglia d'Oro) continued to show the way through a half in :47.01, She Feels Pretty was up into fifth and under a nice John Velazquez hold at the three-eighths. Pulled off heels in upper stretch, She Feels Pretty descended on the leaders with about a furlong to travel and shot clear to score by daylight. The maiden Simply in Front (Summer Front) ran on for second ahead of a slow-starting and favored Dazzling Star (GB) (Blue Point {Ire}) in third. The final time was some 0.36 seconds faster than the Summer S. two races prior.
“I was very confident, I got to say she was feeling very confident,” said Velazquez, winning his first Natalma. “I made sure I put her in a good position behind Dylan Davis [rider of Ozara], a horse that could take me a little way down. When we turned for home, I moved her to the clear and her ears went up and I said, 'Wow, look at this.' I went after her and she instantly responded. The way she did it was very impressive.”
Pedigree Notes:
She Feels Pretty is the 12th worldwide stakes winner, seventh graded winner and second top-level scorer for Karakontie, upset winner of the 2014 GI Breeders' Cup Mile whose lone starter on championship weekend, Spanish Loveaffair, was sixth in the 2020 Juvenile Fillies Turf. She Feels Pretty is the 161st worldwide SW, 74th GSW and 20th Grade I/Group 1 winner out of a daughter of the late, great More Than Ready, and the first by a sire descending from an immediate Storm Cat line.
Arthur Hancock's Stone Farm raised and sold She Feels Pretty to the second Book 4 session of last year's Keeneland September Sale, where she caught the eye of Roy and Gretchen Jackson's high-class operation. Payson Stud acquired dam Summer Sweet for $550,000 as an early 2-year-old from the partial dispersal of the Estate of Sarah Leigh at Keeneland January in 2016, the most expensive horse of racing age during the sale. Payson also gave a sales-topping $700,000 for Summer Sweet's Grade I-placed half-sister Summer Solo (Arch), whose daughter Solo Album (Curlin) won this year's GIII Selene S. over the local synthetic track.
The filly's second dam was a listed winner in France for the late Gerald Leigh and Jonathan Pease–who coincidentally trained Karakontie for the Niarchos Family's Flaxman Holdings–and her other winners included SW Summer Breezing (Langfuhr) and Adirondack Summer (Thunder Gulch). This is also the family of Gerald Leigh's dual French Group 1 winner Act One (GB) (In the Wings {GB}).
The yearling relation to She Feels Pretty, a colt by Good Magic, was purchased for $600,000 by Boardshorts from the Stone Farm draft at Keeneland September this past Thursday. Summer Sweet foaled an American Pharoah filly Apr. 19 and was bred back to Olympiad.
Saturday, Woodbine
JOHNNIE WALKER NATALMA S.-GI, C$503,500, Woodbine, 9-16, 2yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.34, gd.
1–SHE FEELS PRETTY, 121, f, 2, by Karakontie (Jpn)
1st Dam: Summer Sweet, by More Than Ready
2nd Dam: Summer Solstice (Ire), by Caerleon
3rd Dam: Summer Sonnet (GB), by Baillamont
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
WIN. ($240,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Lael Stables; B-Payson Stud
Inc (KY); T-Cherie DeVaux; J-John R. Velazquez. C$300,000.
Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0, $262,379. Werk Nick Rating: A+++.
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2–Simply in Front, 121, f, 2, by Summer Front
1st Dam: Complicated, by Blame
2nd Dam: Consequence, by El Prado (Ire)
3rd Dam: Educated Risk, by Mr. Prospector
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK
TYPE. ($115,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP). O-Colebrook Farms;
B-William Harrigan & Mike Pietrangelo (KY); T-Patrick Dixon.
C$100,000.
3–Dazzling Star (GB), 121, f, 2, by Blue Point (Ire)
1st Dam: Dancing Sands (Ire) (SW-Ger, GSP-Ity, GSP-Fr,
GSP-Tur, $128,976), by Dubawi (Ire)
2nd Dam: Past the Post, by Danzig
3rd Dam: Qui Royalty, by Native Royalty
1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE, 1ST G1 BLACK
TYPE. O/B-Godolphin (GB); T-Charles Appleby. C$50,000.
Margins: 4 1/4, 2HF, 1 3/4. Odds: 8.00, 29.65, 1.40.
Also Ran: Ozara (Ire), Golden Canary, Ready to Jam, Rhapsody, Bolt Enoree, Dea Matrona (Fr), She's Fire, Ms. Tart, Brocknardini, Dancing Duchess. Scratched: Airosa, Go With Gusto.
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