SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The trainer George Weaver, no umbrella, no slicker, stood in the Saratoga winner’s circle late Friday afternoon, already wet with more rain pelting down upon him.
“For some reason it doesn’t bother me,” Weaver said.
And why would it when Weaver had just sent the 5-year-old mare Dorth Vader out for her first win in 27 months? This was no small victory. Dorth Vader ran down longtime pacesetter Dazzling Move at the furlong grounds and won the Grade 1, $500,000 Ogden Phipps Stakes by 4 3/4 lengths.
It was Dorth Vader’s first Grade 1 and first win of any sort since March 2023, when she resided in the barn of trainer Michael Yates. After a fifth in the Kentucky Oaks that year, and with Yates based in Florida, owner-breeder John Ropes sent Dorth Vader to Weaver to campaign in New York. She missed by a head in the Grade 1 Acorn making her first start for Weaver, ran one more race two summers ago, and then was sidelined until May 2024. Dorth Vader returned in a tough spot, the Grade 1 La Troienne, finished a creditable fifth – and then went to the sidelines again.
Connections, according to Ropes, first suspected a suspensory ligament injury, but Dorth Vader eventually was diagnosed with bone bruising. In any case, she missed the rest of last year and only returned to racing in March, finishing second in her allowance comeback before returning to the La Troienne last month, where she checked in a good fourth after a terrible trip.
Dorth Vader earned a 94 Beyer Speed Figure, one point shy of his second-place finish in last year's Acorn.
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Her trip Friday turned out perfect. Racing over a sloppy, sealed track, the gate sprang open for the 1 1/8-mile Phipps and Dazzling Move shot forward, with Dorth Vader to her outside. Randomized triedto move to the front but was unable to do so after breaking from the outside post in a field of 6. There was a reason Randomized couldn’t get there: Dazzling Move was faster. Her first quarter mile went in 22.90 seconds, a testing pace for the distance.
“I knew Randomized had speed, but she had to try to cross over and clear,” said Dazzling Move’s jockey, Jose Ortiz. “I know she was going fast, but she is fast.”
Ortiz had a good hold on Dazzling Move, and while his mount wasn’t exactly settled, she appeared to be traveling well within herself. Many others were not, struggling with the conditions, and after getting a half-mile in 46.41, it became clear that Dazzling Move meant business, Past the three-furlong marker midway around the turn, four horses were off the bridle, their riders just trying to keep them in the game. Dazzling Move still traveled well, and Dorth Fader, shadowing her, also had run.
Dazzling Move’s lead had dwindled to about 1 1/2 lengths at the quarter pole and, turning for home, Ortiz cocked his stick and gave the pacesetter a thump, with Dorth Vader still closing the gap while under a hand ride from John Velazquez. Dorth Vader switched leads at the three-sixteenths pole, surged past Dazzling Move, and widened to the wire despite drifting out a few paths.
Dazzling Move ran the best race of her career, finishing 1 3/4 lengths in front of third-place Raging Sea, the 11-10 favorite. Raging Sea's jockey, Flavien Prat, came back as tired as Weaver was wet.
“I had to ride her every step of the way,” Prat said.
Raging Sea took a hard bump just after the start from Tarifa to her outside, falling back to a distant last and struggling mightily with the sloppy track. She did well, in fact, even to manage third, with 16 lengths back to Tarifa in fourth. Randomized, also running far below her best, finished fifth. Leslie’s Rose was eased across the wire but walked off the course, while her Todd Pletcher-trained stablemate Candied was an early scratch. Pletcher said in a text message that Candied “wasn’t feeling herself” Friday morning.
Weaver was feeling good about his decision to race Dorth Vader without blinkers this year after she’d made her first dozen starts wearing them.
“I still wasn’t sure she wanted to go that far,” Weaver said. “When I first got her, I was like, man, this filly does not need blinkers. I never took them off till this year and it’s paying dividends. She’s really getting into a nice, comfortable groove early in the race and I think it’s helping her get the two turns.”
In a race that strongly shaped fast early and slow late, Dorth Vader clocked 1:49.10 and paid $19.60 as the fifth choice, shorter only than 12-1 Dazzling Move. Bred in Florida, Dorth Vader is by Girvin out of Hardcore Candy, by Yonaguska, and she earned an automatic, fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program.
Weaver said he and Ropes would plot a path toward the Distaff at Del Mar, a bold year’s end goal for a mare who, until this wet Friday at Saratoga, hadn’t won a race in more than two years.
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