La Verdad Wires the Field in Dancing Renee
Sent off as the overwhelming 1-9 favorite, multiple graded-stakes winner La Verdad wired the field to win the $100,000 Dancin Renee for New York-bred fillies and mares Sunday at Belmont Park.
Ridden by regular rider Jose Ortiz, La Verdad broke on top and led the field of seven New York-breds through an opening quarter-mile in 22.91 seconds, with the half going in 45.85 seconds over a sloppy track. The muscular bay mare blew away her overmatched rivals in the stretch and rolled clear of the field to win by 7 1/4 lengths. It was the second-straight win on the card for jockey Jose Ortiz.
Never going to the whip, jockey Jose Ortiz gave his filly a well-deserved pat on the neck as he spoke highly of La Verdad.
"She broke well and I just went out there and she did what she needed to do," said Ortiz. "She handles a sloppy track great all the time so I'm very happy with her. Linda brought her in at 100 percent and I want to thank all the connections for giving me the opportunity to ride this horse."
Her winning time for the six furlongs was 1:10:57 seconds.
Trained by Linda Rice for Lady Shiela Stable, another stakes start in Saratoga seems to be the likely next race for the newly-minted millionaire.
"I was happy she won was easily as she did because, frankly, this is a race we were just trying to use to get her to Saratoga in better condition than we were last year, going toward the Honorable Miss [Grade 2, $200,000, July 29] and hopefully the Ballerina [Grade 1, $500,000, August 29]," said Rice. "We didn't want it to be a hard race on her, and elected to stay here rather than go to the Princess Rooney. We had also considered running her in the [Bed o' Roses], but in her last race she had worked pretty hard to keep [Bed o' Roses entrant] Room for Me at bay. [The Bed o' Roses] was a pretty strong race, so I'm really glad we're going to Saratoga off an easy effort."
Also the winner of the 2014 edition of the Dancin Renee, this is the third-straight stakes win in as many starts for La Verdad , who entered the Dancin Renee off a gritty half-length victory in the Grade 3 Vagrancy on May 16 at Belmont. The daughter of Yes It's True has six wins from seven starts over the Belmont track.
La Verdad returned $2.10 on a $2 win wager as she extended her record to 13-2-0 from 19 starts. With the winner's purse of $60,000, La Verdad enhanced her bankroll to $1,050,700.
Make the Moment was a neck ahead of third-place finisher Miss the Point, with Here's Zealicious checking in fourth. Hot Rendezvous, Court Dancer and Uncle Southern completed the order of finish.
Source: NYRA Communications (Jeanne Schnell)