In horseracing, a plan rarely works out perfectly, but everything fell into place for trainer Whit Beckman and his 2-year-old fillies Saturday at Fair Grounds.
Beckman entered Her Laugh and the first-time starter Simply Joking in the Letellier Stakes, a six-furlong sprint. He scratched Her Laugh and won the Letellier with Simply Joking, and a few hours later, Her Laugh led from start to finish in capturing the $100,000 Untapable Stakes.
A quibbler would point out that Beckman’s second Untapable runner, Drexel Hill, finished fifth, but Saturday’s start was merely a dirt experiment for a filly who had previously raced only on Woodbine’s synthetic surface.
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As for Her Laugh, she’d raced only once, using a sustained run to win a maiden sprint at Churchill Downs, and she had no trouble seeing out the Untapable’s one mile, 70-yard distance after setting a slow pace under Axel Concepcion.
Concepcion, spending his first meet at Fair Grounds, won three races on the day including two stakes, having guided Bear River to victory in the Richie Scherer Memorial. Geoff Dixon’s Brantley Acres has an ownership stake in Simply Joking and owns Her Laugh, a homebred. Both fillies are by Practical Joke, Her Laugh out of the Point of Entry mare Truth Goddess. Her Laugh was entered in and withdrawn from Keeneland auctions as a weanling and a yearling.
Her Laugh hardly showed brilliant speed Saturday but didn’t need to, coasting along in the clear through fractions of 24.63 and 49.
“Seeing her on the lead, seeing the fractions, how she was carrying [Concepcion], I knew we were in the best spot. She responded,” Beckman said.
Her Laugh went steadily around the turn, clocked a slightly quicker fourth quarter-mile, took a three-length lead to the stretch call and won by 2 1/2 lengths over 11-10 favorite Golden Gamble.
Golden Gamble did not have a good trip. Racing seventh to the half-mile pole, Golden Gamble was kept behind horses around the turn and into the homestretch, and by the time she found an outside path to make a run, Her Laugh was gone. Golden Gamble initially lugged in slightly before leveling off and finishing solidly, checking in one length ahead of California Sunset, who rallied from last of eight to third.
Her Laugh was timed in 1:43.72 over a fast track and paid $11. Two for two to start her career, Her Laugh earned 10 qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks, the four fillies behind her getting 5, 3, 2, and 1 point, respectively.
Beckman, who made his first Kentucky Derby this year with Honor Marie, celebrated a birthday Friday. Saturday, he could celebrate a plan unfolding just as envisioned.
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