Grayosh Denies She Feels Pretty in Lake Placid

Flanagan Racing's Grayosh, a work in progress for trainer Chad Brown, put all the pieces together just in time for an upset victory in the $200,000 Lake Placid Stakes (G2T) Aug. 17 at Saratoga Race Course. The 3-year-old Yoshida (JPN) filly "bought for a song", according to owner Sean Flanagan, defeated heavy 3-4 favorite and grade 1 winner She Feels Pretty by a neck in a thrilling duel to the wire. Grayosh, unaware of her price tag, handed Flanagan his first graded stakes win as an owner. "I don't even know what to say I had nothing prepared," Flanagan said after the race. "I'm overjoyed. To do this with a horse I paid the least for. I mean it can happen, look at Thorpedo Anna." Bred in Kentucky by Susan Bedwell and out of the Paddy O' Prado mare Rosie O'Prado, Grayosh had been entered in the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale and caught the eye of Flanagan's friend, bloodstock agent Jeff Macker. "I really liked the sire Yoshida, that horse could run on this stuff (turf), the dirt, the highway, and he was a horse I really enjoyed betting. So I said (to Macker) let's do it," said Flanagan. A bid of $25,000 landed the filly from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. Brown said Grayosh had impressed him all winter training at Payson Park in South Florida, which may have explained the trainer's ambitious campaign for her once she broke her maiden. "If you look at her form, I sort of over-entered her early on in her career (because) I thought so much of her, and then it really didn't work out... She's been a bit unlucky. She had a terrible spill if you will at Gulfstream that day (in her second start March 3 at Gulfstream Park) and was really almost put out of commission for a while. She's a tough filly and came back from it." Breaking her maiden in her third start at Gulfstream Park, Grayosh was an even fourth against stakes company to fellow Brown trainee Segesta before being nosed out of the photo in an allowance race July 18 at the Spa. Everything would click for Grayosh this go around. Jockey Flavien Prat and Grayosh raced in striking position, never too far off the pace behind a moderate early tempo of :24.22, :49.67, and 1:14.30. Into the far turn, She Feels Pretty launched a threatening three-wide move to take her from fourth and headed the front-running Ori at the top of the lane. When Ori began to tire, drifting in by the eighth pole, Prat struck with Grayosh, who moved off the hedge and split horses with an eye-catching turn of foot to take command in deep stretch. Grayosh fended off a game She Feels Pretty to the finish in a final time of 1:43.74. She Feels Pretty was a half-length ahead of a furiously closing Dynamic Pricing (IRE), another Brown trainee, in third. Grayosh also became the first graded stakes winner for her sire Yoshida. Originally retired to WinStar Farm, Yoshida stood the 2024 season at Darley Japan for a fee of ¥1.5 million. "Grayosh showed a lot of heart there to find more and really outfinish a good horse," Brown said. "She's on track now." On track for a possible bid in the $750,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1T) Oct. 12 at Keeneland, where Grayosh could again leave Flanagan speechless should she capture her first grade 1.