Just How Good is Lady Eli?
Winning is the ultimate goal in American sports. Sports are about victories, and when that is all that happens to a person, or a team, or a racehorse for that matter, it means they are at the top of their particular endeavors. Lady Eli is undefeated, perfect in all five of her career starts; but just how good is this Chad Brown trained turf star?
This three-year-old filly, who has won just shy of a million dollars, is by far the best runner produced from the three-crop sire Divine Park. Lady Eli’s dam, Sacre Coeur, had just one win in three career starts, but did produce another stakes winner on the grass.
Looking back at Lady Eli’s three most recent races you have to be impressed that the young filly won in three very different ways. She won saving ground on the rail, with a stalking trip on the outside of the pacesetter, and overcoming a bad trip while stuck in the midst of horses almost the entire race. She has won on four different racetracks in races, with very slow and rather quick paces, and on grass courses labeled firm and good. In common in all of her victories has been an amazing turn of foot when her regular rider, Irad Ortiz Jr., put her into a drive.
In her most recent start on May 31st, Lady Eli was victorious in the nine furlong Wonder Again on Belmont Park’s inner turf course, where for the first time she was stuck in traffic almost the entire race. While repeatedly bottled up with no running room, it was going to be more difficult to close on the leaders after very slow fractions of 25.06, 51.10, and 1:15.95.
The official chart described the race, “Lady Eli was kept on hold, stuck behind rivals and lacking suitable options approaching the quarter pole, idled in same traffic situation after turning for home.”
Watch the race to see Lady Eli fight to find overcome the bad trip and win by a half-length, the smallest margin of her career since her maiden score. Listen to track announcer, Larry Collmus, as he described how quickly Lady Eli turned trouble into victory.
Lady Eli’s 2015 debut came at Keeneland on April 12 in the Appalachian Stakes (G3). Here, she and Ortiz sat a perfect stalking trip a couple lengths behind the leader. When asked to run down the stretch, the turquoise silks with the pink sash turned into a blur, as Lady Eli surged to an easy 2 ½ length with the final two furlongs run in 11.23 and 11.82 seconds.
Her most important victory came on the biggest stage in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) against a full field of fourteen that included several European runners. With only two races under her belt Lady Eli had no problem running a ground saving trip along the rail on the very firm and fast Santa Anita grass. After fast fractions of 22.66, 46.46, and 1:10.48, she unleashed her winning move when a huge hole opened up. Once again it was two 11 second closing panels for Lady Eli.
On Saturday, Stars and Stripes Day, in the $1,000,000 Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1), Lady Eli will look to win her sixth start against a strong field while trying the mile and a quarter distance for the first time. Her trainer feels that she is ready for the challenge of staying unbeaten, "There's always some pressure when you have an undefeated horse; you'd like to keep it going," said Brown. "She's given us every indication in the morning that she's going to continue to run her 'A' race, but as she goes on the races are always going to get harder. I'd anticipate this being the most difficult race she's been in, but she seems like she's up for it. She continues to improve."
Including Lady Eli there will be a full field of 14 fillies in the Belmont Oaks.
1-Pine Needles [Clement/J. Ortiz] frontrunner who finished third in the Wonder Again, also from Clement
2-Lady Eli [C. Brown/I. Ortiz]
3-Sharla Rae [O’Neill/Rosario] fifth in the ten-furlong American Oaks (G1) at Santa Anita
4-Itsonlyactingdad [Pletcher/Soumillon] finished fourth in the Wonder Again
5-Miss Chatelaine [Clement/Maragh] sixth in the Wonder Again
6-Spanish Queen [Baltas/Blanc] winner of the American Oaks
7-Consumer Credit [C. Brown/J. Alvarado] finished third in the American Oaks. A winner of four turf races, including the Sweetest Chant (G3)
8-Olorda [Figge/Velazquez] a German-bred filly, making her first American start, won a grade three at Longchamps in May
9-Gypsy Judy [Graham/Velasquez] third place in the one mile Penn Oaks
10-Outstanding [O’Brien/O’Donoghue] an Irish-bred making her first American start after a June 24 stakes win at a minor track in Ireland, first-time Lasix
11-Sentiero Italia [McLaughlin/L. Saez] a mile allowance winner at Belmont in 1:33.78
12-Daring Duchess [Mott/Lezcano] winner of a recent Churchill Downs first level allowance
13-Lady Zuzu [Lukas/Graham] has eight career starts for D. Wayne Lukas
14-Strict Compliance [C. Brown/Castellano] winner of the Penn Oaks
A win in the Belmont Oaks would raise Lady Eli’s record to undefeated in six starts and it would show that she is in a fact very good; good enough to take on the older horses and show that she is the best American female turf runner of any age.