MIAMI – Awesome Feather was unquestionably the star of the show on Saturday’s Festival of the Sun card, completing her sweep of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Stakes with another one-sided victory in the $350,000 My Dear Girl. In the process, she became the fourth and final Calder-based horse to earn a trip to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 5-6.
Awesome Feather registered her fifth victory in as many starts in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, matching her career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 87 with an eight-length decision. The performance surprised even her trainer, Stanley Gold.
“I was just hoping she’d win, I didn’t think she’d run away from the field like that,” Gold said.
Awesome Feather’s final time was more than two seconds faster than colts and geldings ran the In Reality division of the Stallion Stakes 90 minutes later.
“I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to time,” Gold said. “The track looked like it was fast, but it was really dead and I think the fact she ran so much faster than the boys was a combination of her being that good and perhaps them not being so good. The most important thing is that she came back like she wasn’t done yet. I was really happy about that.”
Awesome Feather also completed an unprecedented back-to-back Stallion Series sweep for Gold, owner-breeder Fred Brei, and jockey Jeffrey Sanchez. They also turned the trick a year ago in the open division with Jackson Bend. Now the trio will set its sights on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
“I hope and assume we’ll be able to get into the Breeders’ Cup, and we are making plans to go even as we speak,” Gold said. “She’ll be pre-entered, but we won’t send her until we’re sure she gets into the field. If the race oversubscribes, a committee selects the final seven horses, and I think with the fact she’s undefeated and there is some public interest in her, that she should get in. She’s a good filly. I think she’s got a legitimate shot, and I really believe she deserves a chance to run.”
Gold says he plans to work Awesome Feather just one time before the Breeders’ Cup, at Calder next Tuesday, then put her on a van for Churchill Downs within 48 hours of the work.
Awesome Feather joins Big Drama (Sprint) and the Marty Wolfson-trained pair of Jessica Is Back (Filly and Mare Sprint) and First Passage (Filly and Mare Sprint) as the four Calder-based horses expected to be pre-entered for the Breeders’ Cup. Both Big Drama and Jessica Is Back earned an automatic bids by winning a Win and You’re In race on the Summit of Speed card here in July. Big Drama won the Grade 2 Smile Sprint and Jessica Is Back won the Grade 1 Princess Rooney.
Coa will defend Tropical meet title
Jockey Eibar Coa, who switched his tack here from New York last fall and won the Tropical at Calder riding championship for his eighth local title, will defend the crown when the Tropical meet opens Thursday. Coa served notice he’ll be the one to beat again by winning five races last weekend, including the Cassidy Stakes with the undefeated Flying Trip and the Calder Oaks aboard Trip for A.J.
Coa’s main competition figures to come from Luis Saez and Manoel Cruz, who finished one-two at the Calder meet that ended Sunday. Saez pulled away during the final three weeks of the session to notch his first-ever riding title with 142 wins, a dozen more than defending champ Cruz. Apprentice Angel Moreno finished a distant third.
Coa's book will be handled here by Tito Fuentes.
Steve Dwoskin became the first trainer to capture both the owner and trainer titles during the same session when topping both categories during the Calder meet. Dwoskin won 34 races as a trainer, four more than runner-up Bill White, 27 of those winners coming with horses he owned himself.
Thank U Philippe tops allowance
The Wolfson-trained Thank U Philippe will take on allowance company for just the second time in his career Thursday in the feature race on opening day of the Tropical meeting. Thank U Philippe, who will take on older horses for the first time in his career in the seven-furlong dash, won Tampa Bay Downs’ Sophomore Stakes in April but has made just two subsequent starts and none since finishing third as the 4-5 favorite in the one-mile American Dreamer on July 25.
Thank U Philippe will face a field that includes the hard-knocking veteran Green Vegas and stakes winner Salo Jak.
Post time for the 51-day Tropical meet will be 12:25 p.m. daily, with the lone exceptions being Breeders’ Cup Day (noon) and Thanksgiving (11 a.m.).
