Unchained Melody belts a winning tune in the Mother Goose
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Photo:
Annette Jasko
Announcing herself as a new star in the three-year-old filly division, the lightly raced Unchained Melody ran away from Lockdown and the rest to win Saturday's Grade 2 Mother Goose at Belmont Park by three lengths.
Shown big respect at the betting windows off a strong allowance win at Belmont in her latest, the Brian Lynch-trained daughter of Smart Strike was sent to the post as a 2-1 second choice.
Unchained Melody went right to the lead under Joel Rosario, and set all the fractions down the long backstretch run. Longshot Spanish Harlem and Vexatious raced as a team closest to the early leader. Meanwhile, Lockdown, who was coming in off a strong third in the Kentucky Oaks, and was made a slight favorite today, stumbled a bit out of the starting gate, and was near the back of the field of seven early.
Unchained Melody cruised through the far turn, and faced no real challenge from those closest to her early. The only threat came from the favorite who made a menacing move on the outside to get within striking distance as the Mother Goose field straightened out. It appeared as the race would be on, but the early leader still had oodles under the hood.
Lockdown tried hard, and ran another strong race for trainer Bill Mott, but she had no answers for the talented Unchained Melody late. The Smart Strike filly cruised to the wire an easy winner of her stakes debut.
"She broke on top and I thought there was going to be somebody on the outside of me and so we could track for a bit but she was so comfortable," explained Rosario. "I just let her sit where she was and she was going easy. She was enjoying the middle of the track so I just kept her there where she felt most comfortable. I worked her in the morning the other day so I was able to get a feel for her and she moved very good. I have to thank Brian giving me the opportunity to ride her."
Final time for the 8 1/2 furlongs over the fast main track at Belmont was 1:42.45. Moana, one of three from the barn of Todd Pletcher won the battle for third over My Miss Tapit, and Vexatious, but was some nine lengths behind the impressive winner.
Not having made her career debut until March 19, Unchained Melody is clearly a filly on the rise. The winner of two straight raised her lifetime record to 4-3-1-0, while pushing her career earnings to rapidly increasing $233,400 for owners, Hidden Brook Farm and Hare Forest Farm.
"I felt good about this after her A-other-than performance here with one-turn stuff," remarked Lynch. "She's got such a high cruising speed and there didn't look like there was going to be a lot of pace in the race, so we hoped she'd get comfortable on the lead. Not that those were slow fractions, she cracked out a half in 46, but she's tough to get by, obviously. The Alabama would be the next step, I think. We'll give her some time and set her for that. I think she's certainly stamped her card in that direction today."
As the second choice in the field of seven, Unchained Melody paid $6.40, $3.50, and $2.90 across the board. The exacta over the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Oaks, was good for $22.20, while the 2-4-7 triple, completed by Moana, paid $138.00.
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