Mind Control's sister takes aim at a Grade 1 of her own
Red Oak Stable’s racing manager, Rick Sacco, spoke all summer of wanting to send the half-sister to Grade 1 winner Mind Control long. On Sept. 7, My Gift From Above “proved us right,” Sacco said, when running off to a 9 1/2-length maiden special weight victory at Monmouth Park.
Pending the 2-year-old filly’s breeze this weekend, Sacco’s planning to send My Gift From Above way up in class for Keeneland’s Oct. 4 Alcibiades Stakes, a Grade 1, $400,000 race on opening day in Lexington, Ky.
“She kind of loafed on the lead and didn’t have any horses to run at,” Sacco said of the maiden win, which measured a mile and 70 yards. “I think she was three or four (lengths) in front at the quarter pole and kept widening. It was a good race visually.
“I think it could have been a lot better if there was something to run at and rated behind a horse. She could have got more out of the race. But it was impressive, and we’re going to move forward from it.”
A Red Oak homebred trained by Rick’s brother, Gregg Sacco, My Gift From Above won in what was her third start after previous races at 5 and 5 1/2 furlongs.
Her second out effort may evidence some class heading into the Alcibiades, a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies likely to be headlined by Saratoga’s Spinaway Stakes (G1) winner Perfect Alibi.
The Aug. 10 heroine at Monmouth Park, Colby, won last Saturday’s Dickie Moore Stakes at Charles Town. Runner-up My Gift From Above and third-place Cofactor both broke their maidens next out. Fourth-place Firenze Freedom, the half-sister to Firenze Fire, then shipped to Belmont to strike in her following start, too.
Mind Control, the 3-year-old out of the mare Feel That Fire, became a multiple Grade 1 winner last out in the H. Allen Jerkens (G1) at Saratoga. In 2018, he began by taking the Hopeful Stakes (G1) at the Spa.
Another campaigned by Red Oak and trained by Gregg Sacco, Mind Control’s freshening up for a 4-year-old campaign.
“I feel next year that the mile races are going to be right in his wheelhouse,” Rick Sacco said. “We want to win the Met Mile — prove as a 4-year-old that he can win a prestigious, stallion-oriented race like that.”