Awesome Feather still perfect after Gazelle romp
by Kellie Reilly
Last year’s champion juvenile filly Awesome Feather outclassed the opposition
in Saturday’s Grade 1, $250,000
Gazelle
Stakes at Aqueduct, extending her career record to a perfect
eight-for-eight. Making just the second start of a sophomore campaign delayed by
injury, the 3-2 favorite prompted the pace before asserting herself down the
stretch to romp by 5 1/4 lengths.
Awesome Feather, who capped 2010 with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Fillies, was then sold for $2.3 million at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November
sale. Unfortunately, 11 months would pass before she could debut for new owner
Stronach Stables and trainer Chad Brown. After being sidelined with a tendon
issue, Awesome Feather returned triumphant in the October 5 Le Slew Stakes at
Belmont Park. That seven-furlong event served as her only tune-up for the 1
1/8-mile Gazelle, but she was ready for a prime effort.
With her regular rider Jeffrey Sanchez in the saddle, Awesome Feather was a
tugging second as she tracked Love and Pride through an opening quarter in :24
4/5. Sanchez coaxed her into settling more kindly, lapped onto the pacesetter’s
flank through splits of :48 4/5 and 1:12 2/5.
Awesome Feather and Love and Pride turned into the stretch in tandem, but
they would not match strides for long. Although Love and Pride tried gamely to
keep up, Awesome Feather was simply too good. She put the early leader away,
drew off with consummate authority, and won in hand in a final time of 1:50 on
the fast track. The impressive winner paid $5.10, $4 and $3.40.
“She is unbelievable,” said Sanchez, who has ridden her in all eight starts.
“When I breezed her the first time, I said, ‘This is the best filly.’ In
Florida, when she won the first time, I told them, ‘She is the best filly.’ She
is little, but she is unbelievable. I didn’t go to the lead, I sat there, took
back. At the half-mile pole, I knew I was going to win the race. I had a lot of
confidence in her.”
“I was a little nervous there, but she’s a pro,” Brown said. “She’s got the
heart of a champion. We just try to stay out of her way in the morning training
her and just try to take care of her, day-to-day. She does the rest every day.
It was a pretty special win.
“She trained so well in the morning, I’m not surprised (that she won like
that). You just never know going to race speed, with everything she has been
through, what’s going to happen. But with the way she’s training, it doesn’t
surprise me she’s capable of uncorking a run like that. She’s so sharp and
strong in the morning — she’s a super talented horse.”
Well behind her, Draw It got up late to nip Love and Pride for
best-of-the-rest honors, with Daring Reality another two lengths astern in
fourth. Next came Miss Valentine, R Gypsy Gold, Bryan’s Jewel and Savvy Supreme.
Purple Cat was scratched, as was Marion Ravenwood, winner of the off-the-turf
Capades on Thanksgiving.
Awesome Feather has now bankrolled $1,681,746. Originally trained by Stanley
Gold for owner/breeder Jacks or Better Farm, the bay dominated her division at
Calder. She captured the J J’sdream in her stakes debut and went on to sweep the
Desert Vixen, Susan’s Girl and My Dear Girl divisions of the Florida Stallion
Stakes. Awesome Feather meted out the same treatment at a higher level in the
Breeders’ Cup, clinching an Eclipse Award.
The Florida-bred is by Awesome of Course and out of the multiple stakes
heroine and Grade 3-placed Precious Feather, by Gone West. Her second dam is
English Group 3 queen Last Feather, third in the Group 1 Oaks at Epsom in 1982.
Her third dam is Quill, the champion juvenile filly of 1958 and an influential
broodmare. Her descendants include Canadian champion One for All, champion turf
horse Run the Gantlet, Japanese champion Maruzensky and French Two Thousand
Guineas hero Vettori.
Brown expects to showcase Awesome Feather at Stronach’s Gulfstream Park.
“We’ve just been taking it day-by-day with her,” Brown said. “As long as
she’s 100 percent healthy, we’ll probably see her in the Sunshine Millions at
Gulfstream (on January 28). That’d be the plan, but we’re going to see how she
is first, but if she’s OK, that’s where I’d go.”