Eleusis takes Long Island
Gary Tanaka’s ELEUSIS (Diesis [GB]) sat just off the pace in
Saturday’s $150,000 Long Island H. (G2) before showing she was
the best of the rest, pulling away to a 2 1/4-length win over the
good Aqueduct turf in her North American debut.
Jockey Jose Santos sat chilly aboard Eleusis in third place as
Belles Lettres (Sky Classic) led the pack through splits of :24,
:50 1/5, 1:16 and 1:40 4/5. As the group entered the stretch,
Arvada (GB) (Hernando [Fr]) briefly took the lead to mark the
next checkpoint in 2:05 3/5. However, it was the Jean-Claude
Rouget-trained Eleusis who responded to urging from Santos to
pull off, ending the 1 1/2-mile race in 2:31 2/5.
The winning three-year-old filly paid $5.30, $3 and $2.10 as
the 3-2 coupled favorite with Noble Stella (Ger) (Monsun). Runner-up
Literacy (Diesis [GB]) gave back $9 and $3.20 at 16-1, rounding
out the $54 exacta. Arvada, the 6-5 favorite, hung on to third
and returned $2.20 while finishing the $118 trifecta (1-2-7).
Savedbythelight (Saint Ballado), Noble Stella, Belles Lettres
and Briviesca (GB) (Peintre Celebre) brought up the remainder of
the field. Bounding Charm (Boundary) and Primetimevalentine (Affirmed)
were scratched from the race.
This win improves Eleusis’ record to 7-6-1-0 with earnings of
$165,801. She was purchased at the 2002 Keeneland September
Yearling Sale for $67,000 and was bred in Kentucky by Nancy
Dillman. The bay filly is out of Balancing Act (Spectacular Bid),
making her a half-sister to an unnamed yearling filly by Silver
Charm.