Walter Downey’s FABULOUS STRIKE (Smart Strike) wore down a stubborn True
Quality (Elusive Quality) inside the final furlong to eclipse the $103,100
Gravesend H. (G3) at Aqueduct on Saturday. Breaking alertly from the rail under
Ramon Dominguez, the Todd Beattie trainee was out dashed early and sat off splits of :22 1/5 and :45 1/5 for the opening half-mile, prior to wearing down
the pacesetter in the stretch. The final time for six panels on the good main
oval was 1:09 3/5, and the 1-2 favorite paid $3.10 and $2.30.
“I was planning on going to the lead, especially with the inside post,”
Dominguez said. “But the horse that C.C. (Lopez) was on (True Quality) was very
quick out of the gate and after a few jumps I took hold. Down the lane, he
finished up nice. He’s a push-button kind of horse.”
“I thought rating was always a possibility with him,” Beattie said. “Today I
just let Ramon make the decision.”
True Quality ran a big one in defeat, finishing 3 1/2 lengths clear of his
nearest foe at 9-2. Place was worth $3.50, and the exacta gave back $8.80. Good
Card (Good and Tough) finished 1 1/4 lengths ahead of 2-1 second choice Lucky
Island (Arg) (Lucky Roberto) in the four-horse field. Night Stand (Diamond),
Songster (Songandaprayer), Grand Champion (Two Punch) and Cavallo Pazzo (Mt.
Livermore) were withdrawn.
Fabulous Strike captured the 2007 Vosburgh S. (G1) as well as that same
year’s Aristides S. (G3), and has bagged seven other stakes events en route to a
19-12-2-0, $939, 412 career line. The dark bay gelding finished a game second by
a head in this year’s Vosburgh, recorded a decent fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint
(G1) and entered the Gravesend off an easy score in the Fall Highweight H. on
November 27.
“He didn’t have a smooth training schedule in between his last race and
today,” Beattie revealed. “I moved him from Penn National to my brother-in-law’s
barn at Laurel (because of the track condition). He actually lost some training,
which hurt him.
“We’ll go back to Penn National and make a decision in four or five days. I
would like to go to Dubai (for the $2 million Golden Shaheen [UAE-G1] on March
28) with him. We’ll see if this is enough to get him there.”
Bred by Tea Party Stable in Pennsylvania, Fabulous Strike is the first
registered foal from the winning Lost Code mare Fabulous Find.