SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer George Weaver told anyone who asked his opinion about the four fillies he ran in Thursday’s $150,000 Galway Stakes at Saratoga that he truly believed each had an equal opportunity to win the race. And in the end, it was the longest price of those four 3-year-old fillies, the 17-1 Pop Idol, who proved him right when leading at every call en route to a one-length victory over Abientot, with Le Cevere checking home an unlucky and wide-running third as the tepid 2-1 favorite.
“Everybody asked me about these fillies, to pick them apart, and I told them every one had a chance to win. So if you liked one at 7-2 or 4-1, well here was one at 16 or 17-1 who broke on the lead, saved ground, kept going, and won,” Weaver said in reference to Pop Idol, whom he owns in partnership with R A Hill Stable.
Pop Idol went postward the longest price of Weaver's four starters in the Galway despite the fact that she won her last two starts and was a stakes winner at 2, having captured the Shady Well Stakes over the synthetic surface at Woodbine in her juvenile finale. Weaver also told anyone who would listen that the daughter of Maclean’s Music had been training forwardly over the turf in preparation for her 3-year-old debut.
With Hall of Fame rider John R. Velazquez aboard for the first time, Pop Idol broke alertly from her inside post, set a pressured pace from along the rail, shook free when roused in early stretch, and held sway under strong handling. Abientot raced at the rear of the compact field into the stretch, angled out at the head of the lane, then finished best of all down the center of the track to be second best. Love Cervere, coming off stakes victories in each of her last two starts, was forced to angle five wide with her bid leaving the turn, loomed a major factor through the furlong grounds only to lug in and flatten out near the end.
Weaver’s three other starters – Silsbee, Laurice, and Regalton – finished fourth, fifth, and eighth, respectively, in the nine-horse lineup. Pop Idol paid $37.60 after completing 5 1/2 furlongs over a firm course in 1:02.13.
“I’ve got to go back and rewatch the race and talk to the jockeys,” Weaver said when asked what it was like trying to keep track of all four of his horses in a hectic sprint like the Galway. “I just told all my riders to ride their natural race and try to stay out of each other's way as best they can. It looked like Laurice made a move into the quarter pole and flattened, Silsbee got into some traffic in the lane, while 5 1/2 furlongs is probably a tad to short for her. Regalton I probably ran back too quick. It looked like she didn’t fire at all.”
As for Pop Idol, Weaver actually felt she might have been a work or two short coming into the race.
“She’d already run through her conditions, and with 3-year-old fillies, when you get a chance to get some black type, you have to take it,” said Weaver. “And these races [3-year-old stakes], figure-wise, are easier than running in a two other than. I was glad to win, although I feel bad none of the others hit the board. But they all deserved the opportunity to run.”
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