Protagonists exit Personal Ensign in good order

It’s Tricky emerged from her stumbling start with superficial cuts (Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com) One day after Royal Delta came up a half-length short of winning the Grade 1 Personal Ensign, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said the champion filly looked fine. Sent off as the 3-5 favorite Sunday in the field of six, Royal Delta raced wide on the backstretch and far turn and didn’t begin to advance on leader and eventual winner Love and Pride until well inside the final furlong. As he did immediately after the race, Mott praised the performance of It’s Tricky, who stumbled twice coming out of the gate and recovered well enough to threaten at the quarter pole before finishing third. “The horse you could say ran the biggest race of all is It’s Tricky,” Mott said, “and if she had run her race, maybe it would have helped our situation. As it was, it wasn’t our day. We weren’t good enough on the day, under the conditions, to win. The winner beat us on the day. We gave her 10 pounds. I guess with the 10 pounds we needed things to go perfectly.”

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Godolphin Racing’s It’s Tricky suffered
superficial cuts when she stumbled at the start of the Personal Ensign
but was otherwise in fine shape following her third-place finish. She now will
target the Grade 1 Beldame, the trainer added.

“She kind of scraped the front of her ankles with the way she broke,” McLaughlin
said. “On the positive side, (jockey Eddie Castro) stayed on her. I think
she earned a lot of respect running the way she did, and we will point for the
Beldame. One turn, a mile and an eighth, at Belmont, where she’s undefeated.”

McLaughlin admitted his luck has otherwise been spectacular during the 2012
Saratoga meet, having won the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks and Grade
1 Alabama with Questing and the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and Grade 1 Travers with
Alpha. Questing and Alpha, who dead-heated for the Travers win with Golden
Ticket, also race for Godolphin.

“Luckily, it was (It’s Tricky), already a multiple Grade 1 winner, (stumbling at
the start) and not Alpha (in the Travers),” McLaughlin said.

Love and Pride emerged from her 10-1 upset of the Personal Ensign in “excellent” shape, trainer Todd Pletcher said this
afternoon, adding that the Beldame on September 29 is a possibility for the four-year-old A.P. Indy filly.

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