If there’s ever a reason to cancel betting tickets, it’s when a horse breaks through the starting gate prematurely.
Those horses never win.
“I’ve seen one,” said trainer Robbie Medina, who has spent more than 30 years working at the racetrack. “When Furlough won the (1998) Honorable Miss.”
Ok, so there’s one every three decades.
But when you add in that before that horse broke through the gate she was ballistic in the paddock, you have reason for the connections to toss that race out and hope for a more typical showing next time. Keeping the faith after such an experience with 3-year-old filly Praying gave Medina something he has been waiting for his whole life.
A former assistant to Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey for 25 years, Medina notched his first win at Saratoga Race Course in glittering style as Newtown Anner Stud Farm’s Praying rebounded from the horrible trip in her previous start to post a decisive 3 1/2-length victory in the $169,750 Prioress Stakes (G3) for 3-year-old fillies Aug. 30.
“Any win here is a good win, but to get the first one in a stakes, I feel like I’m a little blessed,” Medina said.
Praying’s toss-out race came in a May 24 allowance optional claimer at Churchill Downs when she finished seventh, beaten 27 1/2 lengths. Medina wanted to bring the Vekoma filly back in a race at Ellis Park, but the card was canceled due to heat. So, he targeted the Prioress.
“We schooled her here and she was absolutely perfect,” Medina said. “I knew she was sitting on a good one and I was hoping for black type. I didn’t think she would run bonkers like that.”
Praying, a $410,000 buy at the 2024 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale from the Mayberry Farm consignment, received some help when the 4-5 favorite Delightful Claire stumbled at the start and was last early on in the field of five. Though the daughter of Thousand Words rallied to grab second, she did not have a prayer against the 21-1 winner ($44.40) who covered the six furlongs in 1:10.10 under Eric Cancel.
Rigney Racing’s Delightful Claire was second by a head over Flat Out Time, who also stumbled at the break.
The win was the second in eight starts for Praying, a daughter of the Bernardini mare Pray for Leslie who was second in the Southern Hospitality Overnight Stakes at Oaklawn Park before the Churchill Downs fiasco. The filly bred in Kentucky by Jeff Kerber now has $224,240 in earnings and is the fifth graded stakes winner for leading second-crop sire Vekoma, who stands at Spendthrift Farm.
