On Leave gets dream trip in All Along win
On Leave benefited from a dream trip Saturday at Laurel Park on her way to a length victory in the $150,000 All Along Stakes, providing a hometown victory for her prominent Maryland owner and breeder, Stuart Janney III.
“She’s a filly I’ve had a lot of fun with. She runs hard every time. She’s been running against the best fillies and mares in the country the past two or three months,” Janney said. “She has a tremendous amount of talent. She’s pretty hard to beat when she’s on the lead in the stretch.”
The All Along, a 1 1/16-mile turf event for fillies and mares named for the 1983 Horse of the Year and D. C. International (G1) winner, was one of seven stakes featured in the 12-race Fall Festival of Racing program headlined by the $250,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3)
Trained by Shug McGaughey, On Leave was sent to post as the 3-5 favorite in a field of eight fillies and mares and immediately obtained a perfect stalking position outside pacesetter Light Up Our World, benefitting from a stumble by speedy Juno at the start. Ridden by Forrest Boyce, the 4-year-old daughter of War Front relaxed nicely past comfortable fractions of 24.22 seconds, 48.21 and 1:11.50 for six furlongs before moving to the lead in the stretch on her way to her second stakes victory in four starts this year.
“[Juno] had all the speed and she stumbled leaving the gate, so I don’t think [Light Up Our World] wanted to be on the lead and we wanted to be tracking. They were going easy and it looked like they quickened up going from the half-mile pole to the quarter pole. She looked like she was hanging a little bit but then kicked on the last 16th of a mile,” said assistant trainer Robbie Medina.
One Leave ran 1 1/16 miles in 1:40.24 to collect her sixth victory in 12 starts. Paige rallied to finish second, a nose ahead of Light Up Our World.
On Leave, who numbered the Grade 2 Sand Springs among her four triumphs in 2016, finished fifth in the Ballston Spa (G2) at Saratoga last time.
“I know she was last in her last race but only got beat three lengths by Lady Eli and I don’t know if there’s any better filly in this country,” Medina said. “And she was really rank that day. She broke good but the horse outside her came down on her and Jose Ortiz said she was going to clip heels so he had to reach up and grab her and then she got rank when he had to move a little earlier than he wanted to. But she’s been a really good horse since Day 1.”
Source: Maryland Jockey Club