She’s a Star
Photo by Adam Coglianese/NYRA.
… in the making. Music Note stumbled out of the gate, lost a hind shoe, raced three wide into the stretch tracking a pokey pace (:24.83, :48.66, and 1:13.09), and still the talented and well-bred A.P. Indy filly easily pulled away, with little urging from rider Javier Castellano, to a 3 1/2-length win as the 8-5 second favorite in the G1 Mother Goose (final eighth in :12.23, final time for the 1 1/8 miles 1:49.75). Trainer Saeed bin Suroor, making a rare New York appearance, said Music Note would be pointed to the Alabama on August 16, but didn’t rule out a start in the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 19. Is it too early to start talking Triple Tiara?
Clearly, for me the story of the four-horse Mother Goose was Music Note’s ascension, but the bigger story for most was Proud Spell’s bad luck. The 1-2 favorite also stumbled out of the gate, then was checked in the stretch after getting caught on the rail, finishing second, but was disqualified and placed third after bearing out on Never Retreat in the final sixteenth. “We would have left the order alone and given jockey Gabriel Saez, aboard Proud Spell, some days off to think about his bad ride,” writes Jerry Bossert in the NY Daily News, and while I agree with him that the DQ seems sort of pointless, I say — with all due respect to Proud Spell, a formidable stakes filly certain to return to win again — that even if everything had gone her way, she still would have finished second to the push-button filly on the improve.
