Always a Runner secures Kentucky Oaks spot in G3 Gazelle

Douglas Scharbauer and Three Chimneys Farm’s Always a Runner collared the pacesetting Pashmina late to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle, a nine-furlong route for sophomore fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack. In victory, the Chad Brown-trained daughter of Gun Runner secured the maximum allotment of 100-50-25-15-10 Kentucky Oaks points on offer to the top-five finishers.

“She looks good this morning,” said Brown on Easter Sunday. “I’ll speak to the owners later today; I’m inclined to go on to the Oaks with her. She’s only ran twice, but she looks super this morning. You deal with 14 horses instead of 20, I just don’t think there’s a whole lot of risk running her in that type of race.
She’s very talented and it keeps me on a schedule with her for the summer. I don’t see an alternative race that’s ‘safer for her.’ If she comes out of this and trains well, I will ship her over to Churchill. She will have one local work here in about two weeks, then she’ll ship over.”

Always a Runner closed from 6th-of-8 under Dylan Davis to secure the 1 1/4-length win in a final time of 1:50.97, which was faster than the 1:51.71 the sophomore Kentucky Derby aspirants ran in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino one race later.

Always a Runner earned a career-best 89 Beyer Speed Figure and improved her record to 2-for-2. She graduated at first asking on February 6 at Tampa Bay Downs, powering clear to a 6 1/2-length victory in a one-mile and 40-yard maiden, then missing time due to a temperature, which occurred earlier in her career as well.

“I expected her to run well,” Brown said. “I only worked her three times [since her win], three-eighths, two halves, and she won. She is really talented, this horse. I’d say she was 75 percent fit.”

Pashmina earns possible Kentucky Oaks berth with runner-up try in G3 Gazelle

Red White and Blue Racing’s Pashmina may have punched her ticked to the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks with a pacesetting runner-up effort to Always a Runner in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Gazelle, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Rob Atras and piloted by Ramon Vazquez, the Constitution bay picked up 50 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points in the nine-furlong route for sophomore fillies to bring her total to 63 – good for the 14th and final spot in the starting gate on the first Friday in May at Churchill Downs. Pashmina added to points earned from a third and fourth in the Untapable [3 points] in December and Silverbulletday [4 points] in January, respectively, at Fair Grounds Race Course ahead of a troubled third in the Sunland Park Oaks [6 points] on February 15.

Pashmina showed the way through splits of 23.84 seconds, 48.51 and 1:13 flat over the fast main track in the Gazelle, and spurted clear to a 2 1/2-length advantage at the stretch call as Always a Runner took dead aim from second position. The Chad Brown-trained Always a Runner chased gamely and put a head in front 40 yards from the wire, as Pashmina jumped track marks, with the former going on to win by 1 1/4-lengths in a final time of 1:50.97.

“It’s a tough way to get beat. You lead the whole way; you put some more separation like you took off again and then you get nailed,” Atras said. “The way I look at it – the big picture – she ran an awesome race and stepped up and ran the race we thought she could run. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Atras said he was surprised later Saturday night when he realized his filly had qualified for the Oaks.

“Initially, we thought we didn’t have enough points to get in, and I thought ‘at least we can go to the Black-Eyed Susan.’ And then I saw the list,” Atras said, with a laugh. “It [the Oaks] will definitely be considered but I haven’t talked to the owners yet.

“I was really impressed with her performance yesterday,” he added. “I wasn’t sure she’d be on the lead because there were horses coming out of sprints, but she was right there and nobody was asserting themselves, so I can’t blame Ramon. She likes to be forwardly placed anyway.”

Pashmina graduated at second asking in November at Fair Grounds with a prominent trip and was a 4 1/2-length pacesetting third in the Untapable at the Louisiana oval where she was pinched back at the three-sixteenths. After stalking a slow pace when fourth in the Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds, she again endured a troubled trip when impeded by eventual winner Bottle of Rouge in the Sunland Park Oaks on February 15.

The two runners directly behind Pashmina in the Oaks points standings are third-place Gazelle favorite Paradise [62.5 points] and the aforementioned Bottle of Rouge [57.5 points], who exited the Sunland Park Oaks to win the Virginia Oaks.

“I thought yesterday was a professional effort from the last time she was on the lead. Even when she broke her maiden, she was a little green down the lane,” Atras said. “In her first stakes, she got on the lead and got a little lost out there before getting sandwiched.

“I think she was very professional,” Atras added, regarding the Gazelle. “I don’t think she stopped by any means; she just got run down by what I think is a pretty special horse that Chad has.”

Atras said the improving Pashmina continued to impress him.

“It’s a lot for a 3-year-old filly and she’s a May foal, too, so she’s not even three yet and she seems to be improving every start. It’s nice to have a really nice filly like that,” Atras said. “She came out of it really good. One thing with her, she’s shipped to different tracks and handled it well. She handles her races really well and I’m happy with her this morning.”

Pashmina was a $350,000 purchase at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale and is out of the Super Saver mare Panthera Onca, who finished second in the Ruthless and third in the Listed Busher in 2020 at the Big A. Her second dam is Grade 3-winner Molto Vita, who was twice Grade 1-placed.

Atras also sent out BellaBlue Racing Stable’s Otello to a distant fifth-place finish in the 10-furlong Listed Excelsior on the Wood Memorial undercard. The 5-year-old Curlin chestnut showed the way through the opening half-mile before tiring in an event won by Yo Daddy.

The difference in efforts from his two stakes charges were as varied as the weather on a well-attended afternoon at the Big A that saw the sun shining early in the card when Atras saddled Otello in Race 3 before rain and colder weather settled in later in the afternoon when the fillies took to the track in Race 11 for the Gazelle.

“We were in a different season,” said Atras, with a laugh, regarding saddling Pashmina. “I was sweating in the paddock with no vest on for Otello and then I had the vest on, and I was freezing, and it was two hours apart. That was wild.”
Atras said Otello had no excuses against a salty field.

“I don’t think it was his ‘A’ race. He can run a better race. Also, that was tough competition,” Atras said. “Those horses really ran. We got to the lead, but they were pressing us. They went by us early and really took off down the lane. That was visually a very impressive race by Yo Daddy.”

source: NYRA