Romacaca, Yummy With Butter Score on Haskell Undercard
Frank Calabrese’s Romacaca looked powerful winning the $200,000 Taylor Made Matchmaker Stakes (G3), and Bruno Schickedanz’s Yummy With Butter turned the tables on an old rival in the $200,000 Oceanport Stakes (G3), the major events on the Haskell undercard at Monmouth Park Sunday.
Romacaca, trained by Nick Canani and ridden by E.T. Baird, tracked a quick pace set by Marquet Madness and then asserted herself in midstretch to open a daylight lead on her pursuers. The 5-year-old mare scored by a length and a quarter and stopped the timer in a very fast 1:46.54 for a mile and an eighth on firm turf, just a few ticks off the course record of 1:46.39.
Ravi’s Song was up for second, a neck in front of the fast-closing Perfect Shirl. C.S. Silk, the 5-2 favorite in the field of 10 fillies and mares, held the lead briefly, but faded to be last.
Romacaca paid $13.20, $5.80 and $4.40 for the victory and topped the $67.20 exacta with Ravi’s Song, who returned $4.80 and $3.80. Perfect Shirl was $4.60 to show.
This was the fifth straight victory for Romacaca, who took Monmouth’s Miss Liberty Stakes last out.
“She’s a super nice filly to have,” Canani said. “She raced great.”
Baird said, “She broke really well. There were some others in there who had speed, so I just let her come out running. She relaxed well enough to have something left in the end.”
Yummy With Butter and Sayif renewed their rivalry in the Oceanport, setting all the pace from gate to wire. In the Battlefield Stakes last time they met, Sayif held the lead to the wire, but this time Yummy With Butter went by in deep stretch to score by a length and a quarter. Sayif was second by a half-length over Baryshnikov, the 9-5 favorite in the field of seven.
Trained by Yvon Belsoeur and ridden by Paco Lopez, Yummy With Butter paid $20.20, $8.40 and $3.80 across the board and topped a $136 exacta after stepping the mile and a sixteenth of firm turf in 1:40 1/5.
Sayif, off at 10-1, paid $10.40 and $5.40 and Baryshnikov paid $2.80 to show.
“I told Paco let’s not be late this time,” Belsoeur said. “Last time, we got caught by a horse on the lead that got away from us. We were just a little late.”
“We just couldn’t get to that horse (Sayif) last time,” Lopez said, “but that race was at a mile. Today there was extra distance. Turning for home, he was able to outkick the leader and get the job done.”
Yummy With Butter, a 7-year-old son of Silvador who races for Bruno Schickedanz, was scoring his first victory since 2009. The Ontario-bred has now won six of 31 lifetime starts.
“He was training like a Grade 1 horse,” Belsoeur said, and this was a Grade 3 race so I was pretty confident. We’ll look at the Cliff Hanger (Grade 3, Sept. 4).”