Aqueduct: Life Talk wins Demoiselle; Dr B takes Go For Wand

Life Talk made a bold statement in Saturday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle, a 1 1/8-mile event around two turns for 2-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.

Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, who won his record extending ninth Demoiselle and fourth in a row, Life Talk notched her first graded-stakes score with a front-running victory and earned 10 qualifying points for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) in May.

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Shimmering Allure, the runner-up 3 3/4 lengths behind, earned five Oaks points, and the New York-bred Dolomite picked up three points for finishing another length back.

Life Talk, who chased probable champion Just F Y I in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies in November at Santa Anita and the Frizette (G1) in October on the Aqueduct racing strip in her last two races, took advantage of her experience around two turns. Dispatched as the even-money favorite in the field of eight, the daughter of Gun Runner out of the Bernardini mare Touchy Feely left the gate alertly and, from then on, dictated the race on the front end while being piloted by a confident Irad Ortiz Jr.

When Shimmering Allure, who was hung out wide on both turns, came at her inside the eighth pole, Life Talk had plenty left and responded by kicking clear.

Owned by Repole Stable, Life Talk set moderate yet steady fractions of 24.10, 48.65, 1:13.10 and 1.38.12 and crossed the wire at 1:51.10 for the 1 1/8 miles on a muddy, sealed track.

“Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful,” Ortiz said about the splits. “So relaxed waiting for me, three-eighths pole, I got nobody around, and I feel like I still have plenty. I don’t call her yet. I don’t even move my hands on her, and as soon as I did, she took off, she responded.

“It is great to see her back in this performance, because it was a great race (in the Breeders’ Cup), because she ran so good to get beat last time. She got beat by three lengths, and she come back maybe a little quick after that tough race, flies back all the way here. But we have a great team, they all do a great job, the assistants and the trainer. She was 100 percent. She’s learning. She’s learning every time she runs. We saw a little more experience, so I think it helps, because she broke so clear, I didn’t have to use her too much. She was full of energy by the quarter pole.”

Amelia Green, assistant to Pletcher, said the game plan put together by the Hall of Fame trainer was executed to perfection by Ortiz.

“With how the track’s playing today, you need to get position, and like Irad said, she warmed up good, and he made the most of it,” Green said. “No one else wanted the lead, so he made the most of that situation. She seemed happy out there and did everything very professionally.”

Shimmering Allure, who is trained by Kenny McPeek and was ridden by Júnior Alvarado, won the one-turn mile Tempted on Nov. 5 at Aqueduct but was second best Saturday.

"I think she gave me hell of a run today,” Alvarado said, “but the track was kind of playing speed, so I kind of had to break out of there and put her a bit closer. Then I could’ve saved around the first turn. Coming into the second turn I didn’t have any chance to go on the inside. I had to keep going very wide. She was very good today. She broke good. I asked her a little bit, and she put herself very close. Normally she has been running a little bit off the pace from behind, and when she put herself in that position, I decided to stay there that close with her, since the track is playing a little fast today. She never gave up. She kept digging in all the way through the wire and was trying to go after that horse in front."

Dolomite, an Alpha Delta Stables homebred trained by Chad Brown, was stepping way up in class and distance after an impressive, seven-furlong, maiden win over the track Oct. 22.

“My filly ran really well,” Dolomite’s rider Manny Franco said of the third-place finish. “I was happy with my trip. I was stalking and followed the winner the whole way. I was just third-best. The winner was much the best.”

Most of All took two Oaks points for running fourth, and New York-bred Caldwell Luvs Gold earned one point in fifth place. Vino Rouge, Ringy Dingy and Cozee Rags rounded out the order of finish. Caress was scratched.

Bred in Kentucky by Gun Runner Syndicate, Mulholland Springs and Tom Grether Farms, Life Talk banked $137,500 in victory while improving her record to 5: 2-1-1. She returned $4.00 for a $2 win bet.

Dr B leads from gate to wire in Go For Wand

Dr B made every pole a winning one as she successfully defended her title in $200,000 Go for Wand (G3), a one-turn mile for fillies and mares.

Trained by Butch Reid and piloted by José Lezcano, the 5-year-old Liam’s Map bay operated on a short lead over the stalking Gerrymander but continued to find more throughout, opening up by four lengths at the stretch call en route to a 3 3/4-length score over Tizzy in the Sky.

“The track’s playing to speed, and she likes the track very much,” Reid said. “A track just like this, a little moisture on the track, close to the same track last year, I believe. It worked out well.”

Dr B set splits of 22.56, 45.06 and 1:09.78 with Gerrymander in second and Tizzy in the Sky watching patiently from third. Gerrymander was given her cue by José Ortiz through the turn, and 3-2 favorite Good Sam was asked to launch her rally by Irad Ortiz Jr.

Dr B put away Gerrymander at the top of the lane and was relishing the wet going as she powered away from her rivals to score at a final time of 1:36.49.

Luis Sáez-piloted Tizzy in the Sky pounced to complete the exacta by one length over the late-charging New York-bred Venti Valentine with Good Sam, who was reported to have bled, and Gerrymander rounding out the order of finish. Saddle Up Jessie and Know It All Audrey were scratched.

?Lezcano said the swift splits didn’t hamper Dr B.

“Yes it was moving, you know, but I think she is a very nice filly,” Lezcano said. “She ran hard the whole way around. She was very comfortable the first half, and I started asking a little bit, but she did pretty good for the whole way almost around.”

It was the first victory in six starts this season for Cash is King and LC Racing’s Dr B, who finished second in both the Vagrancy (G3) in May at Belmont Park and the Honorable Miss Handicap (G2) in July at Saratoga. She arrived from a distant fourth when taking on the boys in the Parx Dirt Mile on Sept. 23.

Reid said Dr B, a gate-to-wire winner of this event last year over sloppy, sealed footing, benefited from a short break after the Parx Dirt Mile.

“We sent her to the farm for three or four weeks at Patty Hogan’s place over in Jersey,” Reid said. “The grass was nice, and she really prospered, put on some weight and came back fresh for just the short break that it was.

“To hold her form that long, we gave her some time off after this race last year, it’s just great that she’s still maintaining this level of competition to be able to compete at this level She’s just been an iron mare from the day we got her and has held that way so far.”

Dr B, out of the graded-stakes placed Proud Citizen mare Boleyn, is a half-sister to Reid-trained stakes winner Stand Up Comic as well as stakes victor Hi Holiday.

Reid said Dr B, if she stays in training, could point to the Interborough at Aqueduct in January with a longer-term goal of the Barbara Fritchie (G3) on Feb. 17 at Laurel Park.

“It’s possible,” Reid said. “We have our eye on the Barbara Fritchie as maybe one of her big dates we’d like to see. We’ll need a race somewhere in between there and here, so that’s a definite possibility.”

Pletcher-trained Tizzy in the Sky arrived from a close, runner-up effort in the 1 1/8-mile Turnback the Alarm at Aqueduct on Nov. 3.

“I thought we were going to be on the lead, but it seemed like when she broke from there, she didn’t really want to do nothing,” Sáez said. “I had to be after her the whole way, but she kept coming. When we got to the top of the stretch, she gave me a little run, but I don’t know, I feel like she needs to go more distance.”

Bred in Kentucky by Eico Ventures, Dr B banked $110,000 in victory and improved her record to 22: 6-7-2. She returned $10.40 for a $2 win bet.