By Brian DiDonato
Sunday's GII Pilgrim S. at Belmont featured just four horses, but it was far from boring, as 'TDN Rising Star' Annapolis and GIII With Anticipation S. runner-up Portfolio Company threw it down pretty much from start to finish. Bass homebred Annapolis was pounded down to clear favoritism off a head-turning, fast-finishing 4 1/2-length debut score at Saratoga Sept. 4, and prompted Portfolio Company here through easy splits of :24.34 and :48.96 as Expected pacesetter Doctor Jeff (Street Boss) was ridden with surprising patience after breaking slowly. Annapolis ranged up on even terms with his main rival after a six-furlong split of 1:12.22. Portfolio Company battled back gamely from the fence in the run to the line, but Annapolis always seemed to have a little bit more to give and struck the wire a head in front.
“With only four horses, there wasn't much speed in the race,” noted winning pilot Irad Ortiz, Jr. “The other horse that showed some speed (Doctor Jeff) to the outside of me might be a step below these horses. [Portfolio Company] I've ridden before and he can be tough to handle and likes to get very keen. I knew the pace wasn't going to be very fast, so I just broke well and tried to be close to the pace. I ended up second to the horse I had to try and beat, so I just went from there.
“He fought the whole way to the wire. That was a nice race. The way he did it last time he looked like a nice horse, so we expected him to move forward and he did.”
Added Byron Hughes, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher: “He broke well and Irad had him in a great spot on the outside. It was a good duel down the stretch and he was able to get a head down at the wire… We were hoping he would break well and help Irad put himself in a good position and see what happened today. I thought [Doctor Jeff] was going to show more speed. He didn't break well and left us alone there on the outside in the clear, so it all worked out.”
This was Pletcher's fourth win in the Pilgrim, which has produced the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner in three of the last five years.
Sunday, Belmont Park
PILGRIM S.-GII, $186,000, Belmont, 10-3, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:41.04, fm.
1–ANNAPOLIS, 120, c, 2, by War Front
1st Dam: My Miss Sophia (GSW & MGISP, $605,040),
by Unbridled's Song
2nd Dam: Wildwood Flower, by Langfuhr
3rd Dam: Dial a Trick, by Phone Trick
'TDN Rising Star' 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES
WIN. O-Bass Racing, LLC; B-Bass Stables, LLC (KY); T-Todd A.
Pletcher; J-Irad Ortiz, Jr. $110,000. Lifetime Record: 2-2-0-0,
$165,000. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk
Nick Rating: A.
2–Portfolio Company, 120, c, 2, Kitten's Joy–Iteration, by Wild
Again. ($125,000 Ylg '20 FTKSEL). O-Klaravich Stables, Inc.;
B-Kenneth L. & Sarah K. Ramsey (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.
$40,000.
3–Limited Liability, 120, c, 2, Kitten's Joy–Hold Harmless, by
Blame. O-Stuart S. Janney, III; B-Stuart S. Janney, III LLC (KY);
T-Claude R. McGaughey III. $24,000.
Margins: HD, 5, 3 1/4. Odds: 0.65, 2.35, 5.80.
Also Ran: Doctor Jeff. Scratched: City At Night, Midnight Worker.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
Pedigree Notes:
Annapolis becomes the 100th black-type winner and 56th graded/group winner for his superstar sire–he is the fourth graded winner bred on the War Front–Unbridled's Song cross. Unbridled's Song, perennially at or near the top of the broodmare sire list, is responsible for the dams of 104 graded/group winners.
Originally campaigned by Mathis Stable and Pletcher after selling for $260,000 as a KEESEP yearling, My Miss Sophia took the 2014 GII Gazelle S. and was second in the GI Kentucky Oaks before being purchased by Reynolds Bell, Jr. on behalf of Jon Clay's Alpha Delta Stables for $2.15 million at the Fasig-Tipton November sale that fall.
My Miss Sophia found a new home on the turf at four, and earned a career-best 102 Beyer Speed Figure when finishing a close third in the GII Ballston Spa S. behind MGISWs Dacita (Chi) (Scat Daddy) and Tepin (Bernstein). She was subsequently put in foal to War Front after an abbreviated 2016 campaign, and produced the now 3-year-old Nevisian Sunrise, who was third in June's Wild Applause S. here for her breeder and Portfolio Company's conditioner Chad Brown. Agent Steve Young, meanwhile, paid $4 million for My Miss Sophia while she was carrying Annapolis at the 2018 Keeneland November sale–her price was $200,000 short of sale topper Lady Eli.
A half to the Young-purchased 2015 GI Florida Derby winner Materiality (Afleet Alex) from the family of GISWs Afleet Express and Embellish the Lace, My Miss Sophia lost her Medaglia d'Oro foal in 2020, but produced another War Front colt Apr. 23. She was barren to War Front in her most recent visit to him.
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