Venti Valentine adds the Bay Ridge Stakes to her 2022 resume Saturday at Aqueduct. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.

By Melissa Bauer-Herzog

New York-bred champion Venti Valentine returned to her winning ways on Saturday with a 3 3/4-length victory in the $100,000 Bay Ridge Stakes at Aqueduct.

Racing at a mile on the dirt as the second choice in the race, Venti Valentine broke strong on the sealed, muddy track before settling a few lengths off the pacesetting Mashnee Girl. Racing a few paths off the rail under Dylan Davis, Venti Valentine easily settled as they raced through early fractions of :23.24 and :46.94.

The complexion of the race changed around the turn when most of the field converged on the leader and Venti Valentine went wide for her challenge. It didn’t take long for the 3-year-old daughter of Firing Line to stick her nose in front with only Know It All Audrey the closest rival as they raced through the stretch. That rival didn’t have enough left to stick with Venti Valentine and she faded to finish 3 3/4 lengths off the winner with Spungie ralling for third and another 6 3/4 lengths back. Venti Valentine won in 1:39.19.

“Everything worked out great today,” winning trainer Jorge Abreu said. “Being in the outside post [helped], too. I don’t think she likes being on the inside. I felt pretty comfortable turning for home and Dylan was just sitting there. He had plenty of horse and everything played out good.”

The Bay Ridge was the second win of the year for the homebred filly for Final Furlong Racing Stable, which bred her with Maspeth Stable and races her with Parkland Thoroughbreds. Venti Valentine won the listed Busher Invitational Stakes in March before finishing second in the Grade 3 Gazelle Stakes. The 3-year-old also finished third in the $200,000 Fleet Indian Stakes in late August at Saratoga Race Course.

Venti Valentine’s record sits at four wins in 10 starts with three other top-three finishes, including two wins and a second as a juvenile. Saturday’s victory took her earnings to $524,250. Abreu said that the immediate plan for the filly is a winter break, with Venti Valentine heading to Ocala for 60 days off Tuesday.

Foaled at Schuylerville Thoroughbred Farm in Schuylerville, Venti Valentine is one of two stakes winners out of the winning Medaglia d’Oro mare Glory Gold, whose produce record includes multiple stakes winner Espresso Shot. That mare was also raced by Venti Valentine’s connections and trained by Abreu.

Espresso Shot was sold for $300,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton November Sale three years after Final Furlong purchased Glory Gold carrying Venti Valentine for $13,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. They purchased that mare after being impressed with Espresso Shot, who they purchased for $69,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.

“The best part of today is the breeders’ awards we’ll get from it,” said Final Furlong Racing Stable’s co-managing partner Dan Zanatta. “Being the breeder of a stakes horse always makes it extra meaningful. We still have the mare [Glory Gold] and she’s in foal to Munnings and will go back to Uncle Mo next year. We’re really supporting her and we have a lot of progeny we’re waiting for. The New York breeding program is great, and we’ve invested a lot of money into the breeding program, not just the racing program. We’re big supporters of it.”

The dam of four winners from five runners overall, Glory Gold had a New York-bred filly by Omaha Beach last year. Bred by Final Furlong Racing Stable and Maspeth Stable, that filly sold for $500,000 to Lael Stables at this year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale of selected yearlings. Glory Gold did not have a foal this season.

Betsy Blue storms from off the pace to win Saturday’s Garland of Roses at Aqueduct. Susie Raisher/NYRA Photo.

Betsy Blue went from Grade 3-placed to open stakes winner in a weeks’ time Saturday, taking the $116,400 Garland of Roses with a last-to-first run through the Aqueduct stretch.

Cloud Nine Stable’s 4-year-old daughter of Tonalist bounced out of her third in the Grade 3 Go for Wand last week at Aqueduct and shortened up to win the 6-furlong Garland of Roses by 1 1/4 lengths over Beguine. Jose Lezcano rode the winner for trainer Linda Rice.

“We accomplished what we wanted with the Grade 3 [placing] and, frankly, I knew it was back on short rest, but she’s won all of her conditions and there’s limited opportunities for her,” Rice said. “It’s on her home court and she came out of the race great, so I said ‘let’s go right back.’ ”

Betsy Blue not only added the Garland of Roses to her third in the 1-mile Go for Wand, she collected her second stakes victory after taking the 2021 Bouwerie Stakes on Big Apple Showcase Day. She improved to 9-for-20 and boosted her bankroll to $604,510.

Bred by Blue Devil Racing and foaled at Sugar Maple Farm in Poughquag, Betsy Blue was claimed by Rice for $50,000 out of a victory March 25, 2021 at Aqueduct. Betsy Blue won her next two starts, including the Bouwerie, during a sophomore campaign where she went 4-4-1 in nine starts.

Betsy Blue has been equally effective at 4, now with five wins in 11 starts to go with three seconds and a third. She won back-to-back starts in allowance-optional company in mid-August at Saratoga Race Course and at the Belmont at the Big A meet before a fourth in the Iroquois Stakes on Empire Showcase Day in late October.

Betsy Blue went off as the 2-1 second choice in the field of five for the Garland of Roses, behind even-money choice Smash Ticket.

Lezcano was content to let Betsy Blue trail the field – which was reduced by two after the scratches of Hot Peppers and Dontletsweetfoolya – as Smash Ticket and Disco Ebo battled through the opening quarter-mile in :22.51. Beguine, racing just behind the top two early, took over before the half in :45.78 with Betsy Blue still 4 1/2 lengths back trailing the field.

“I saw Lezcano was urging her to keep her close enough to win and that was the idea,” Rice said. “She’s coming off of a mile, so he had to encourage her a little bit but she’s such a professional and she loves what she’s doing.”

Lezcano tipped Betsy Blue wide turning into the lane, gained on the leader with every stride and took control inside the sixteenth pole to win going away. Betsy Blue won in 1:10.92 with Beguine second, 4 1/4 lengths ahead of Disco Eba. Snicket, another New York-bred running back on short rest, finished fourth with Smash Ticket fifth.

“She’s a very good mare. She always tries hard and gives me her best,” Lezcano said. “They went pretty quick in front early on and when they turned for home she found another gear, went on and won the race. Any race from a mile to three quarters, she always tries hard.”

Betsy Blue is the fourth foal out of the stakes-placed Yonaguska mare Honest to Betsy. Her first foal, the City Zip mare Sand City, won two of 25 starts with 10 placings and earned $87,895. Honest to Betsy is also the dam of the unraced 2-year-old New York-bred Unified filly Midnight Confession and a New York-bred colt by Mitole foaled April 30.

Multiple New York-bred champion Gander won six stakes during his career, including two editions of the Empire Classic. Adam Coglianese/NYRA Photo.

By Tom Law

Four-time New York-bred champion, graded stakes winner and fan favorite are just a few easy ways to describe Gander.

Anne Morgan, who took care of the popular gelding the last few years at her Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, summed him up far better.

“We are devastated. Gander was a very special horse,” Morgan said Thursday, the day after the son of Cormorant passed at age 26. “His big personality was a force to be reckoned with.  He was a big gentleman who loved people and especially loved his carrots.”

Gander earned those carrots and more, after a career that started when the Gatsas family bought him for $50,000 at the 1998 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training and culminated with retirement more than seven years later. He won 15 of 60 starts and earned $1,824,011.

Mike Gatsas called him a “lunch box horse,” in a NYRA feature story almost three years ago, when Gander was well into retirement and before a now annual stakes race named in his honor was run at Aqueduct.

“Every time we put him on the track, he performed well,” Gatsas said.

Bred by Angela Rugnetta, Gander started his career for the late trainer Charles Assimakopoulos before moving to the barn of John and Tonja Terranova. He compiled a record of 15-10-9 along the way, and became a popular member of the NYRA circuit and a poster boy for the state’s breeding program.

Gander last summer at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater. Susie Raisher Photo.

Gander won two of six starts as a 2-year-old and finished second in the Damon Runyon Stakes late in the year to set up his sophomore campaign that produced the first of his New York-bred championships. He won three of 12 starts, with four seconds and two thirds, including victories in the Albany Handicap at Saratoga Race Course and Empire Classic Handicap at Belmont Park late in the season.

Gander followed those campaigns with New York-bred championship seasons in 2000, 2001 and 2002 – in the 4-year-old and up male category – with victories in the Evan Shipman Handicap in 2000, Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup Handicap in 2001 and Empire Classic in 2002.

Gander enjoyed his best season in 2001, winning two of 10 and earning $557,060. He also placed in that year’s Grade 1 Whitney Handicap, Grade 1 Donn Handicap and Grade 3 New Hampshire Sweepstakes Handicap and contested the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont Park.

His bankroll of more than $1.8 million made Gander the third highest New York-bred earner when he retired in 2003. He initially went to Better Days Farm in Bedford Hills, New York, before spending time at the late Peter Fuller’s Runnymede Farm in North Hampton, New Hampshire. Gander also lived at Stone Bridge Farm in Schuylerville for several years before making his way to Mill Creek Farm.

“He was one of the smartest horses I have had the privilege to be around,” Morgan said. “He will be sorely missed here at Mill Creek. He was one of a kind.”

The Gander Stakes was inaugurated in the mid-2000s, initially for 3-year-olds and up in the fall at Aqueduct and then for 4-year-olds and up in the spring at Belmont Park. The $100,000 Gander is now for 3-year-old New York-breds and will be run at 1 mile Saturday, Feb. 25 at Aqueduct.

Impazible Donna, a 5-year-old daughter of Sequel-based Mission Impazible, scores first stakes win in the Staten Island division of the NYSS. NYRA Photo.

Flying P Stable’s Impazible Donna overcame a somewhat adventurous trip to land her first stakes victory in her first stakes try in Sunday’s $116,250 Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Series Stakes at Aqueduct.

The 5-year-old daughter of Mission Impazible bobbled behind one of her three rivals early before running wide into the stretch under Javier Castellano. Impazible Donna won by 1 3/4 lengths from Silken Dollar in 1:24.92 over the muddy and harrowed main track.

“She was on the wrong lead and when she did that, she made an adjustment and she leveled off,” Castellano said of the mare’s misstep early.

Impazible Donna handled her business from there, tracking Bank On Anna and Silken Dollar through the opening half-mile in :46.34 and circling those two while running in the five path around the far turn. She took the lead from Silken Dollar outside the eighth pole, battled briefly with that rival inside the furlong marker and drew off late. Silken Dollar held second, 9 ½ lengths in front of Bank On Anna with Sedona Rocks fourth of four.

“She trains like a really nice horse,” winning trainer Bruce Levine said. “I was afraid to run her seven-eighths and now I can’t wait to run her a mile. We’re going to try her at least. She’s training better than she’s run in her life. Now, she’s gone seven-eighths twice.”

The 6-5 second choice behind favored Bank On Anna, Impazible Donna improved to 3-for-17 with five seconds and four thirds with the victory and boosted her bankroll to $266,340. She’s the second leading earner in 2022 for Mission Impazible, a 15-year-old multiple Grade 2-winning son of Unbridled’s Song who stands for $2,500 at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson.

Bred by Twin Creeks Farm, Impazible Donna is the fourth foal out of the stakes-placed Silver Deputy mare Pink Lollipops. She was originally offered at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale but not sold on a bid of $14,000.

Impazible Donna made her debut for Flying P and Levine during the 2019 Saratoga Race Course meeting. She finished second in her debut before going to the sidelines for more than a year. She returned in late August 2020 at Saratoga, finishing second again, before a victory going 6 1/2 furlongs in early October 2020 at Belmont Park. Her next victory came three starts later in late January 2021 at Aqueduct.

“She showed so much promise in her very first start she ran for us as a 2-year-old,” said Flying P’s Jay Provenzano. “She was going 5 1/2 [furlongs] and she spotted the field about 12 lengths and just missed getting up at the wire and then pulled up past the wire, so we gave her about a year layoff.”

Impazible Donna raced exclusively in state-bred allowance-optional company from then until the Staten Island, placing six times in 10 starts until the Staten Island. Impazible Donna hadn’t raced since back-to-back seconds to Mosienko in allowance-optionals Aug. 6 and Sept. 2 at Saratoga Race Course.

“She’s been a little hard luck,” Levine said. “The biggest thing is she’s not a good doer and you have to space her out and really train her light. That’s just the way she is. But she’s been good to me.”