Room Service shows touch of class in American Oaks

Room Service shows touch of class in American Oaks

Room Service followed Emollient’s hoofsteps by turning the Ashland/American Oaks double (Cecilia Gustavsson/Horsephotos.com) Gary and Mary West’s homebred Room Service had to share top honors in the Grade 1 Ashland over Keeneland’s Polytrack April 5, but there was no doubt about her superiority back on turf in Saturday’s Grade 1, $350,750 American Oaks at Santa Anita. By sweeping from well back to prevail by 2 1/4 lengths, the Wayne Catalano trainee became the second straight Ashland winner to follow up in the American Oaks, emulating Emollient’s achievement at Hollywood last summer. Room Service went off as the 2-1 second choice, with 3-2 favoritism accorded to top local hope Nashoba’s Gold. Both were content to drop back in the early going while three of their rivals — 75-1 longshot Kissin Lucky Lips, Tiz the Key and Sweet Bliss — opened up on the rest. Kissin Lucky Lips carved out fractions of :24 4/5, :48 and 1:12 on the firm turf, pressed throughout by her pace rivals. Meanwhile, Nashoba’s Gold was reserved toward the head of the main body of the field. Room Service loped near the rear, trailed only by Diversy Harbor through the opening half-mile, but began to gain ground on the final turn for Shaun Bridgmohan. At about the same time, Nashoba’s Gold had to check in traffic, and the favorite made little impact from that point on.

Although Kissin Lucky Lips and Tiz the Key spurted away from Sweet Bliss at
the mile mark in 1:36 3/5, the closers were on the march, especially Room
Service. Tiz the Key briefly held the advantage between calls at the top of the
lane, but Room Service rolled right past her to complete 1 1/4 miles in 2:01
1/5.

“It’s always worth the trip when you win,” Catalano said of the Kentucky
shipper, “and it’s super weather, anyway. I thought everything in the race was
unfolding like I expected it to. Going a mile and a quarter, I didn’t think
she’d get too far back. We were very happy to see the position she was in. When
Shaun pulled the trigger and moved a little bit to get a jump on the horses, I
thought it was a good move.”

“We had a perfect trip — it really set up well for her style of running,”
Bridgmohan said. “We obviously wanted a little pace to run at and we got it. I
happened to work her on the grass at Churchill (five furlongs on May 6) and
she’s got a great turn of foot on it. She showed that here today.”

Diversy Harbor did her best work late to grab second by a neck from Little
Journey, despite a checkered passage.

“We got tangled up with Doug O’Neill’s filly (Loan Savant), and my filly
kinda got turned sideways,” Hall of Famer Mike Smith said of his trip aboard
Diversy Harbor. “I’d like to have a clean run at them next time but this might
be best in the long run. She settled real well today and made a big run, which
is what she needs to do.”

Tiz the Key tired to fourth, followed by Nashoba’s Gold, Kissin Lucky Lips,
Loan Savant and Sweet Bliss.

Jockey Joe Talamo commented on his troubled trip with Nashoba’s Gold.

“It got a little tight around the quarter-pole,” Talamo said. “I was going
for a spot, but that’s horse racing. I really had a good trip up to that point.
Actually, me and the winner were kind of moving at the same point. I was going
for a hole but they just had a little more momentum and we got squeezed a little
bit out of there. I don’t know if we’d have won today, but I think we’d have
definitely hit the board. It cost her a lot of momentum.”

Room Service, who paid $6.40 to win, now sports a mark of 7-4-1-2, $546,565.
The bay daughter of More Than Ready competed exclusively on turf until the
Ashland. She broke her maiden in her debut at Kentucky Downs last September and
followed with a pair of placings against allowance company in her next two at
Churchill and Gulfstream. A rallying third in the January 26 Sweetest Chant in
her first stakes attempt, she broke through in the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride on
March 2.

Switching to Polytrack for the Ashland, Room Service closed from last in a
13-filly field and dead-heated with Rosalind, the pair drawing seven lengths
clear of third. The American Oaks result boosted the Ashland form, at least from
an American perspective, just as Rosalind prepares to take on Europe’s top
three-year-old filly milers in the June 20 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“She’s mainly a grass horse, but she will handle synthetics pretty well,”
Catalano noted. “We’ll talk over plans for what’s next with Mr. and Mrs. West
and make a decision.

“It was great to be in California with the Wests. The way it worked out, you
couldn’t have written a better script. We came to Mr. West’s hometown and
decided to win a race.”

The Kentucky-bred Room Service is maintaining the perfect record of her dam,
the multiple Grade 3-placed, stakes-winning Old Trieste mare Dream Lady, whose
three foals of racing age are all graded stakes performers. Her first foal,
Grade 3 scorer Major Gain, is a full brother to Room Service. Next came Grade
2-placed stakes winner Oscar Party.

Dream Lady counts as a half-sibling stakes vixen Zeta, the dam of Argentinean
Group 1 winner Zapata. Room Service’s third dam is Grade 3 diva London Lil, who
produced Grade 3 heroine Lilly Capote and multiple stakes queen Bubba Dulyah.
Lilly Capote is herself the dam of Grade 1 victress Aubby K as well as Grade
2-placed full brothers Flying Pegasus and Mythical Pegasus.

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