SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Ag Bullet finally got her elusive first Grade 1 stakes win and did it in style, beating the boys and doing so convincingly by rallying to a two-length victory over My Boy Prince Sunday at Saratoga in the $500,000 Jaipur.
The 5 1/2-furlong Jaipur had been postponed 24 hours due to heavy rains which saturated the local turf course making it unsuitable for racing on Saturday’s Belmont Stakes program.
The Jaipur was a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, a race in which Ag Bullet finished third, beaten just a neck by Starlust, when facing males for the first time last fall at Del Mar.
The postponement of the Jaipur also forced Ag Bullet’s trainer, Richard Baltas, to make a late jockey change with John Velazquez replacing Flavien Prat, who was committed to ride Final Gambit for trainer Brad Cox the same afternoon at Churchill Downs in the Grade 3 Matt Winn.
Ag Bullet had made three previous attempts to win a Grade 1 prior to the Jaipur, sandwiching a fourth-place finish in the First Lady at Keeneland and a third in the Matriarch at Del Mar around her near miss in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Ag Bullet had run just once this season coming into the race, finishing seventh after being boxed in along the rail and steadied sharply near the furlong grounds of the Grade 3 Unbridled Sidney on Oaks day at Churchill Downs.
Ag Bullet broke very alertly under Velasquez and rated in perfect striking position just off the early pace of Coppola in the run down the backstretch. She moved readily to the leader on the turn, and gained control on settling into the stretch before gradually edging away under strong handling to the wire.
My Boy Prince also raced forwardly placed from the outset, slipped along the rail to move within easy striking distance of the leader in early stretch, but proved no match for the winner in the final furlong. Alogon, never far back outside rivals, rallied mildly to finish third, a head behind My Boy Prince and a nose better than Arzak.
Think Big, the even-money favorite, broke awkwardly, raced near the rear of the pack much of the way and was never a serious factor, finishing seventh in a field of 10 turf sprint specialists.
Ag Bullet, who earned more than $1.22 million during her 4-year-old campaign highlighted by her victory in the rich Ladies Turf Sprint (G2) last summer at Kentucky Downs, is owned in partnership by Calvin Nguyen and Joey Tran. She competed the distance over a turf course rated “good” in 1:03.62 seconds, good for a 101 Beyer Speed Figure, and paid $7.70.
“There’s only so many Grade 1s,” Baltas said. “It’s been an up-and-down thing with this filly. She was overachieving last year. We tried to get the Grade 1 and were second, third and third against the boys in the Breeders’ Cup. Now she’s got a Grade 1 win and she’s a very valuable filly.”
Baltas said he had no problem with management postponing the race 24 hours due to the boggy condition of the turf course on Saturday.
“We had a little snag yesterday, but that was fine. I was more than happy (they delayed the race one day). I thought they did the right thing,” Baltas said. “Even though they upgraded the course to good, it was tough to tell how the turf would play today because they hadn’t run any races over it. But I think she would run on anything. Except maybe dirt.”
Baltas said he would, in all likelihood, run Ag Bullet just once more before returning to the Breeders’ Cup, which will be held again this year at Del Mar.
“I’m going to run her at Kentucky Downs in the race she won last year,” Baltas noted. “Maybe she is a 5 1/2-furlong horse. I always wanted to stretch her out to 6 1/2 or a mile, but she might be better sprinting.”
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