After saddling the winners of top-level races around the globe as an assistant, trainer Joseph Lee finally seized his moment in the limelight when May Day Ready pulled off a gutsy victory in the Oct. 4 $350,000 Jessamine Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland.
"It's not too much different, it's just my name in the program now," Lee said.
The last month has been a whirlwind for the horseman, who currently manages a five-horse stable at Belmont Park. KatieRich Stable's May Day Ready handed Lee his first black-type stakes winner Sept. 8 in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes and sweetened the deal by giving the trainer his first graded stakes win Friday.
"She's a nice filly and I've known that for quite a while to be honest with you," Lee said. "It was a difficult week of preparation for us with all the rain up there."
Lee had originally entered May Day Ready in the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2T) at Aqueduct Racetrack, which was rescheduled due to torrential rain storms. The trainer changed his plans earlier this week and vanned the Tapit filly down to Kentucky Oct. 1 after morning training.
May Day Ready was keen after being jostled around during the opening stages of the Jessamine, but settled well off the pace under Frankie Dettori, who had ridden the filly in all three of her starts. Shezafunkydrummer led the charge, maintaining a length advantage on the field as she carved out fractions of :23.06, :48.41, and 1:13.11.
Weaving her way between horses, May Day Ready advanced powerfully as the field turned for home. Bregman Family Racing's Totally Justified, taking advantage of an inside stalking trip, slipped past the tiring front-runner and surged to the front with the closers hot on her heels.
May Day Ready quickened just as she had at Kentucky Downs, collaring Totally Justified at the wire in a blanket finish with a fast-closing Destino d'Oro to the outside. The three 2-year-olds hit the wire in unison, with May Day Ready being declared the winner. Totally Justified was a nose back in second, another nose ahead of Destino d'Oro.
"I thought we got beat to be honest. I thought we got third and that she ran well. Before the race Frankie (Dettori) said if she runs well here 'We're going to the Breeders' Cup,'" Lee said.
May Day Ready ($10.80) clocked the 1 1/16 miles in 1:44.10 over a firm turf course. By winning the Jessamine, a Breeders' Cup Challenge Series: Win and You're In event, the bay earned an all-expenses-paid berth to the $1 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Trainer Rusty Arnold admitted he had no idea who had initially won, but commended the effort by Totally Justified, who was coming off a score in the Aug. 28 P. G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
"It was tough. She had a good trip," Arnold said of the Justify filly. "She's got to figure a few things out. It looks like when she makes the lead and hangs a bit. She did it at Saratoga too but they came to her early and she stayed on. When they came to her late it looked like she was coming back. It was a good race.
"If everything stays good we'll definitely go on to the Breeders' Cup."
A $325,000 acquisition at this year's Ocala Breeders' Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, May Day Ready will try to do even better than her dam on racing's Championship day. Nemoralia, a daughter of More Than Ready, ran third in the 2015 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
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