SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When he watched Immersive train at Keeneland this spring, trainer Brad Cox thought she was talented enough to bring to Saratoga, where many of the best 2-year-olds in Kentucky and New York try to prove themselves.
After winning her debut here on July 21, Immersive came back and displayed her immense talent once again, running down favored Quietside in the final 30 yards to win Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. It was four lengths back to Sherbini in third.
Strong State was fourth followed by The Queens M G, whose bid to become the first filly in 37 years to win all three stakes for juvenile fillies at the Saratoga meet fell 11 3/4 lengths short. Reliable Source was sixth, followed by Pondering, Salted, Tiz Purple, and Bellacose. Slang, for the second consecutive stakes at Saratoga, was pulled up soon after the start.
Though Cox had been impressed with Immersive, the bettors dismissed her at 12-1. She returned $27.40 for a $2 win wager.
“She stamped herself as being good from day one,” Cox said. “She showed at Keeneland she had some talent, we moved her over to Churchill, we thought she was a Saratoga filly for a while. She came up here and ran a big race first time out and I thought she galloped out huge that day. We thought she would stretch out, most Godolphin horses do. They breed two-turn horses.”
Saturday, Immersive only had to stretch out to seven furlongs, but she had to handle a wet track, one made so by intense late afternoon showers that forced the Spinaway to be run over a sealed, muddy track.
Manny Franco was able to get Immersive into a great position down the backstretch, fifth but within two lengths of the lead established by Reliable Source and pressed by Tiz Purple and The Queens M G. Quietside, the 5-2 favorite, joined that trio from the outside to make it four abreast around the far turn. The half-mile went in 46.04 seconds.
Quietside, under Luis Saez, made an early move at the quarter pole to seize control, opened up a 2 1/2-length advantage in midstretch, but couldn’t hold off Immersive, who rallied past after she switched leads.
“The plan was to go forward and be in the first flight of the race. I didn’t want to be too far [back] because of the sealed track and I was in a good stalking position,” Franco said of Immersive. “My filly just kept coming little by little. I knew that I could get there. The leader just ran once, like my filly, but I think mine wants to go that far.”
Immersive, a daughter of Nyquist owned and bred by Godolphin, covered the seven furlongs in 1:25.31 and was given an 84 Beyer Speed Figure.
Cox said he wasn’t overly concerned when the track came up wet.
“She’s a really good, smooth mover,” he said. “I was hoping she would handle it, she did. She’s given us a lot of confidence. It’s nice when one pulls through for you. Hopefully, we can march to the Breeders’ Cup somehow some way.”
John Ortiz, the trainer of Quietside, said he was originally pleased with his filly drawing the outside post for the Spinaway. But Quietside was caught four-wide throughout and Saez may have had to make an early move.
“I think so, he was trying to get the jump on them,” Ortiz said. “If I was riding her, I would have done the same thing. At the end of the day, it was a good effort, it was an honest race.”
The two top finishers could meet again in the Grade 1 Alcibiades at Keeneland on Oct. 4.
Saffie Joseph Jr., the trainer of The Queens M G said, jockey Dylan Davis told him the filly didn’t handle the sealed, muddy surface.
“He said she wasn’t getting a hold of the track, but who knows?” Joseph said. “Obviously, didn’t want the slop to come, it came, there’s nothing you can do. That’s it, racing.”
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