Paulassilverlining Prevails as Ortiz Brothers Battle to the Wire
In a doozy of a stretch battle between brothers, it was a gutsy Paulassilverlining and Irad Ortiz, Jr. prevailing by a nostril over Noble and a Beauty, and Jose Ortiz, in today’s featured Ruthless Stakes at the Big A.
Sent off as the 6-5 favorite in the short five-horse field off of her previous stakes experience, which included a win in the Grade 2 Matron, Paulassilverlining broke from the gate well on Aqueduct’s sloppy inner-track. The Michelle Nevin trained 3yo filly kindly relaxed for her pilot and stalked from fourth as long shot Darling Sky made the early pace, with second choice, Dickinson, in close pursuit. Meanwhile, Noble and a Beauty was also running comfortably just ahead, and to the outside, of Paulassilverlining through fractions of :23.60 and :47.95.
The pair remained in touch from third and fourth, and made their respective moves as the field hit the far turn. While Noble and a Beauty strongly moved to the outside, Paulassilverlining waited briefly for running room on the rail. The top four were together as the field struck the stretch, but the decision quickly became a two-filly affair. As the rail opened nicely for the favorite, she came together with Noble and a Beauty outside the eighth pole, and a thrilling stretch drive was commenced, as they left the others behind
It briefly looked like Noble and a Beauty might have the measure of her more experienced rival, but Paulassilverlining refused to yield one iota. With the Aqueduct rail to her left, and her talented young rival to her right, the daughter of Ghostzapper kept fighting off the challenge all the way to the wire, and hit the finish line a scant nose in front. The winning rider talked about his trip after the race.
"I broke good, I just followed the instructions given to me by Michelle [Nevin], which was to 'stay close and wait to make a run', said the winning Ortiz. “The horse in front of me tried to get out [turning for home] and I was able to get through."
Got through indeed, and then proceeded to win an excellent stretch battle. The victory was the third in five lifetime starts for the Vince Scuderi owned Kentucky-bred, with only a second place finish when stretched out to a mile in the Grade 3 Tempted, standing in her way of a four-race win streak. Nevin was understandably pleased with her charge.
"[Irad Ortiz, Jr.] gave her an excellent ride,” said Nevin. “On the inner track, you can't give up ground, so you can't come out and around and win. He did the right thing, stayed on the rail, and had patience. [And] once it opened up - she's a fighter. She wants to win. She's not very big - she's small, she's stocky, and she's got that little attitude about her. We'd love to try and stretch her out, to see if she can handle it, but right now she seems to have an affinity for sprinting. We'll think things over."
Despite never being able to get by the narrow winner, nothing should be taken away from the Ruthless runner-up. Noble and a Beauty was making only her second lifetime start in today’s race, after a nice debut score, and certainly lost ground to the winner on the far turn. It would look the like the daughter of Noble Cornerstone has a bright future for trainer Rick Violette.