Favored Future Is Now obtained the necessary hole for running room in the $200,000 Interncontinental Stakes (G2T), but Pipsy had the heart.
Turning back Future Is Now as she surged to her inside, Pipsy proved courageous on the lead under Jose Ortiz, scoring by a half-length and winning her second consecutive race in as many starts this year. Earlier this spring, she won an allowance at Keeneland April 19.
The winner threw down splits of :21.74, :44.20, and :55.23 en route to a final time of 1:00.98 for 5 1/2 furlongs on firm turf, eclipsing Future Is Now's time of 1:01.35 in taking the race at Saratoga last year. The Intercontinental was run over longer distances when it was held at Belmont Park before the 2024 running.
"At the quarter pole when they came to us, I was full of horse. We were rolling," Ortiz said. "I felt like she was running and I knew with the speed that she had, passing the eighth pole, it would take a really, really serious racehorse to pass me because she was rolling."
She paid $12.40 to win.
Future Is Now, riding a three-race win streak going back to last summer, offered a threatening bid after stalking the pace but came up second best. The Paco Lopez-ridden mare finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Kairyu in third.
Since arriving in the United States after her initial three starts in Ireland as a 2-year-old, Pipsy is 3-1-0 in six domestic starts for John Sykes' Woodford Thoroughbreds. Besides her two victories this year, she also won the Soaring Softly Stakes (G3T) at Aqueduct Racetrack in the spring of 2024. That race from the turf sprinter came in come-from-behind fashion, though most of her other races have come with her shooting to the front or racing up close to the pace.
Winning trainer Will Walden attributed her record this year to giving her the winter off to "mature and grow into herself as a 4-year-old."
He said he wanted his filly to come from just off the pace, but her sharpness out of the gate necessitated that Ortiz not take away that advantage.
"It's pretty incredible," he said. "She comes from a place where there's absolutely zero emphasis on gate speed, and she's adapted to the U.S. way—these are the fastest horses from the gate in the country, and she beats them all."
Pipsy is a 4-year-old daughter of Kodiac bred in Ireland by Noel Finegan out of the High Chaparral mare Experte. A minor stakes winner in Ireland in October 2023, she was purchased two months later by Woodford Thoroughbreds for the equivalent of $928,489 from the Kilcarn Park consignment to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale.
"Super blessed to have her, super grateful that Mr. Sykes entrusted us with her," Walden said.
Walden suggested the July 19 Caress Stakes (G3T) at Saratoga would probably be next for Pipsy, noting his intention to base her locally this summer.
