“I COULD not believe it…”
Three days after winning the New York Stakes at Belmont Park, Arnaud Delacour still couldn’t believe the fractions Hawksmoor set in the Grade 2 turf stakes. The French-born trainer walked along the outside rail at Fair Hill Training Centre. “I couldn’t believe it…”
The Irish-bred daughter of Azamour posted quarter-mile splits like a bricklayer on a hot afternoon, methodically, she strolled through the first-quarter in :24.27, the half-mile in :49.72, three quarters of a mile in 1m15.72sec.
By then Delacour, jockey Julien Leparoux and owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson stopped counting the fractions and started counting the money.
After 10 furlongs, the four-year-old filly scampered clear to win the $500,000 stakes race by a length over Quidura and Kitten’s Roar.
On race day, Delacour told Quidura’s trainer Graham Motion that the speed had scratched and then asked his Fair Hill neighbour a question.
“What are you going to tell your jockey?” Delacour asked Motion.
Motion shook his head, “Nothing.”
Delacour decided to go with the same approach for Leparoux.
“I didn’t tell him anything,” Delacour said. “The thing is I got a little bit scared the first quarter because it looked like she was pulling a little bit but when we saw the time at the half-mile pole, I was very happy and I knew they would have to come and get her.”
They couldn’t – and Hawksmoor earned her second American victory since coming here for the Queen Elizabeth Cup II at Keeneland in the fall.
Earning a winter’s rest, the Tenuta Genzianella-bred filly has won both her starts this year, taking the Grade 3 Beaugay on yielding turf in May before the Grade 2 New York over firm turf in June.
“She’s run only two times for us, one time at Churchill was kind of a disaster, she didn’t handle the turf and the second time on very soft turf,” Delacour said. “She’s always run very well close. In the Queen Elizabeth, I think they went a half in 47 and change going a mile and an eighth and you know Keeneland, you can close. The fact that she got beat almost nothing [a head] was very encouraging.”
Hawskmoor won three races, including the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas, while trained by Hugo Palmer in Britain.
BY THE MOON
Jay Em Ess Stable’s By The Moon earned her third consecutive score in the Bed o’ Roses Invitational, securing the Grade 3 stakes by three-quarters of a length over Mia Torri and Lightstream.
Trained by Michelle Nevin, the five-year-old mare earned her second consecutive stakes win since being united with Rajiv Maragh this spring. A homebred daughter of Indian Charlie, By The Moon owns six wins and six seconds in her 17-race career that has netted over $2.2 million.
By The Moon relishes the seven-furlong distance of the Bed o’ Roses.
“She showed up again as usual. She always tries and it was another great effort,” Nevin said. “She looked awesome today coming into the race. I just felt so confident with her today. I loved Rajiv’s attitude when he came out to the paddock. It all felt good.”
She should know.