While it was no surprise that 4-5 favorite TUSCAN EVENING (Ire) (Oasis Dream
[GB]) racked up her fifth straight victory in Saturday’s $250,000
Gamely S.
(G1) at Hollywood Park, the manner of her success was not as easily
foreseen. Widely expected to dictate on the front end, as in her past two scores
over a route of ground, the Jerry Hollendorfer mare was instead relegated to a
stalking role when the enterprising Cat by the Tale (Tale of the Cat) was
hustled out of the gate. Regular rider Rafael Bejarano simply went to Plan B
aboard William de Burgh’s Tuscan Evening, who employed stalk-and-pounce tactics
to earn her first Grade 1 coup, and to boost her earnings past the $1 million
mark.
Cat by the Tale had not been able to catch Tuscan Evening in their previous
meetings, so she tried different tactics by gunning to the lead herself in the
Gamely. As she carved out fractions of :24 1/5, :48 1/5 and 1:11 4/5, a patient
Tuscan Evening was parked just to her outside in a tracking second. Leaving the
far turn, Tuscan Evening launched her bid and again established her superiority
over a game Cat by the Tale by midstretch.
Tuscan Evening put her head in front through one mile in 1:35 3/5, but the
race was far from over. Champion Forever Together (Belong to Me), who had been
positioned closer than usual by new rider Rajiv Maragh, loomed boldly in
midstretch. Tuscan Evening kept finding more, however, and held off Forever
Together by a half-length, completing 1 1/8 miles on the firm turf in 1:47 1/5.
The popular winner rewarded her backers with mutuels of $3.80, $2.40 and $2.10
while sparking the $1 exotics — $4.30 (exacta), $22 (trifecta) and $95.40
(4-3-8-5 superfecta).
“We couldn’t ask her to do more than she did today,” Hollendorfer said. “We
thought we would be on the lead, but I talked to Rafael about it and we agreed
that if someone did something different we would adjust, and he adjusted
perfectly. I was hoping she could hold the other mare (Forever Together) off.
I’m very proud of her — she’s very game. It was just what the doctor ordered.
“I don’t think she has a best distance,” the trainer added of the versatile
mare. “She does what she has to do. She’s got a tremendous heart, a tremendous
kick and a rider that fits her perfectly.”
“Unbelievable,” Bejarano marveled. “This mare improves a lot every time. I
knew the three (Forever Together) was going to be a tough horse, but my mare
tries so hard, she wasn’t going to let the other horse take the race. I was
supposed to be on the lead, but when I saw the eight (Cat by the Tale) go to the
front, I just got my mare to relax. I rode her the last six or seven times and I
knew she could do anything, go to the lead or come from behind.
“I was looking for Forever Together and I waited as long as I could. I just
hit her a couple of times and when she saw that other mare coming, she really
dug in. I thought I had a lot of horse left at the end.”
Forever Together, the 9-5 second choice, yielded $2.80 and $2.20 for
finishing second by three-quarters of a length.
“I’m really delighted,” trainer Jonathan Sheppard said of Forever Together.
“I thought she ran real well. I thought she was very game. It’s hard to run down
speed at this track, but she gave it a good try.”
“My mare ran as hard as she could,” said Maragh, who inherited the mount on
Forever Together from the injured Julien Leparoux. “She left everything on the
track. It was just a tough horse race. I have to give a lot of credit to the
winner because my mare is a true champion, and every time I came at her, she
found extra. I had the ideal trip. Both mares ran awesome.”
The 16-1 Cat by the Tale saved
third by a neck from the belatedly-closing Well Monied (Maria’s Mon) and paid
$3.80 to show. General Consensus (Giant’s Causeway), Gotta Have Her (Royal
Academy) and a tailed-off Princess Haya (Street Cry [Ire]) completed the
order of finish, and Medaglia d’Amour (Medaglia d’Oro) was scratched.
With the $150,000 winner’s share, Tuscan Evening increased her bankroll to
$1,049,408 from her 26-11-4-5 record. The five-year-old bay was recently hailed
as Santa Anita’s Horse of the Meet, in recognition of her four consecutive
graded tallies over a remarkable range of distances. Kicking off her skein with
a rallying victory in the January 3 Monrovia H. (G3) at about 6 1/2 furlongs on
the downhill turf, Tuscan Evening captured the one-mile Buena Vista H. (G2) on
Presidents’ Day by 2 1/4 lengths, then wired the 1 1/8-mile Santa Ana H. (G2) on
March 21 by 1 1/4 lengths. She completed her Santa Anita sweep when successfully
stepping up to 1 1/4 miles in the April 17 Santa Barbara H. (G2), where she led
throughout and scored by a tidy length.
Tuscan Evening made her mark chiefly as a miler last season, garnering the
Royal Heroine Mile (G2), Las Palmas H. (G2) and Redondo Beach S. and finishing
second in the Matriarch S. (G1) to conclude 2009. She also showed good form in
downhill turf sprints when placing third in both the Las Cienegas H. (G3) and
Senator Ken Maddy H. (G3).
Formerly based in Ireland with John Joseph Murphy, Tuscan Evening placed in
four stakes as a juvenile in 2007, chief among them the Debutante S. (Ire-G2),
without managing to break her maiden. At three, the bay crossed the wire a close
second in the Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1), just a head back of Halfway
to Heaven (Ire), only to be disqualified and placed fourth.
Bred by Hascombe and Valiant Studs in the Emerald Isle, Tuscan Evening was a
bargain $8,762 yearling at Tattersalls October. She most recently went through
the auction ring at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in November, fetching a bid of
$650,000.
Tuscan Evening was produced by Park Hill S. (Eng-G3) runner-up The Faraway
Tree (Suave Dancer), who is herself a half-sister to French Group 1 winner
Sasuru (Most Welcome [GB]) and English Group 2 heroine Sally Rous (Ire) (Rousillon).
Tuscan Evening hails from the family of Rose Gypsy (GB) (Green Desert), queen of
the 2001 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas) (Fr-G1), and
English highweight Crystal Capella (Cape Cross [Ire]), who was runner-up as the
defending champion in the Pride S. (Eng-G2) last October at Newmarket.