NY-Sired Eminent Tale Wins Undaunted Mettle Stakes in Take-Charge Style

by Sarah Mace

Eminent Tale, a bay son of New York stallion Read the Footnotes, took control of the $60,000 Undaunted Mettle Stakes in the early stages and never looked back, hitting the wire a length ahead of five New York-bred three-year-old rivals in Aqueduct’s Friday feature.

Bred and raced by a partnership of Becky Thomas, Dennis Narlinger and Anthony Grey, Eminent Tale was aiming on Friday to build on his successful stretch-out to two turns in his last race – a runner-up finish to a strong performance by Preachintothedevil in the 1 mile and 70 yard Champagneforashley on New Year’s Day. In the 49-day interim, the colt had put in four works for trainer Richard Dutrow, including two five-furlong bullets, the most recent on Sunday at Aqueduct in 1:01 flat.

Eminent Tale was reunited for the Undaunted Mettle with Eclipse Award-winning jockey Ramon Dominguez, who had piloted the colt to a dominant 7 ¾-length victory in the Great White Way division of the New York Stallion Stakes Series on November 17. On paper (and in the opinion of the betting public), Eminent Tale’s most serious rival was Dogwood Stable’s restricted stakes winner Sky Music. The son of Sky Mesa, however, had yet to prove that he could match his sprinting form around two turns, having failed to finish in the exacta as a beaten favorite in the Damon Runyon Stakes in December and the Champagneforashley, both run at the Undaunted Mettle distance of 1 mile and 70 yards.

Breaking from post four of six, Eminent Tale vied successfully with three others looking to take the lead, and by the time he entered the first turn was firmly in command. Under a firm hold along the backstretch run, Eminent Tale maintained a length advantage over his nearest pursuer, third choice Gold Raptor (Touch Gold), with Beau de Beaupre, Uncle Smokey and Ram in their train. Sky Music, off a beat slow and reserved early, trailed the field six lengths off the lead.

The running order remained unchanged through a quarter-mile run in 24.36 and a half in 48.84. As the field rounded the far turn and the would-bred closers began to gear up for the stretch run, Dominguez loosened up a notch on his mount. Meanwhile Sky Music, responding to urging from jockey David Cohen, split horses in the turn and cornered confidently. In the stretch Eminent Tale spurted away from the field, increasing his lead to as much as four lengths with a furlong to go, but Sky Music continued with good momentum, eroding the lead in the final panel. Eminent Tale, however, kept to his task under a confident ride and finished with a length to spare. Uncle Smokey, by New York stallion Uncle Camie, outran his 44-to-1 odds to get up for third, much as he did in a show finish at odds of 72-to-1 in the Great White Way in November. Completing the order of finish were Gold Raptor, Ram, and Beau de Beaupre.  The final time for the 1 mile 70 yards was 1:43.01, which earned Eminent Tale a Beyer Speed Figure of 77. [VIDEO[2]]

Eminent Tale has shown serious promise from the start, a front-running debut victory under John Velazquez in a 5 ½-furlong restricted maiden special weight contest at Saratoga on August 29^th for which he earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 81. The front runner has faltered only once, never overcoming trouble at the break in the New York Breeders’ Futurity at Finger Lakes in early October. From his five starts, Eminent Tale has compiled a record of three wins, including two stakes victories, and a second place finish with $137,659 in purse earnings.

Eminent Tale is the fourth winner (and third New York-bred winner) of four foals to start from the placed Tale of the Cat mare Six Tales. Purchased by Becky Thomas (agent) from Stonereath Farms at the 2006 Keeneland January sale for $27,000, Six Tales has a two-year-old filly by Officer, a yearling full-brother to Eminent Tale, and was bred last year to Utopia (JPN). Read the Footnotes, sire of Grade 1 winner Rightly So and a total of seven stakes winners, has stood in New York since 2006 for Sequel Stallions[3] and is located at Keane Stud[4].

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2011/02/19/eminent-tale-undaunted-mettle/

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