Saturday’s Virginia-bred and -sired fillies and mares stakes action at Colonial Downs saw Thursday Girl and Noquestionaboutit upend the odds-on favorites to win the $125,000 Brookmeade and $125,000 Glenn Petty, respectively.
Two upstarts trained by Brittany Russell ran one-two in the Brookmeade, led by Timbercreek Racing’s Thursday Girl. Piloted by Sheldon Russell, Thursday Girl covered the 1-1/16 miles in 1:43.46 over a “good” turf course, beating her stablemate Sun Cross home by 1½ lengths.
“Look I have to give credit to both of my owners for running these fillies in here today, it was kind of both of their ideas,” Brittany Russell said. “Sarah Miller owns Thursday Girl and she mentioned this spot way back when. It was huge. Sun Cross was lightly raced and just had one kind of okay start this year but she has been training well. Expectations weren’t super high. We were just hoping both the girls would run good.”
After breaking sharply, Thursday Girl was taken back by Sheldon Russell to sit a pocket rail trip, biding her time as the odds-on favorite Quadra led the field through sharp opening fractions of :23.88 and :48.46 while taking pressure from Mila Candy. Thursday Girl made her move mid-stretch, getting first run on the closers as the forward fillies began to fade and led the charge across the finish line. Buzzaway rallied late for third.
Jubilant owner Sara Miller’s first words in the winner’s circle were “I finally feel like I’m validated.” Asked to explain, she said “Look, with horses there is some kind of recipe to find out what makes them happy — and we figured out that recipe. This horse has a huge heart and she’s quirky and she’s in the right program. Sheldon just ran a brilliant ride. I think if Sheldon hadn’t run that smart of a race, I may not have got that lucky. Brittany and her team have done an incredible job with her.”
Miller, who has had a few horses with Russell before, bought the filly last year primarily to ride in hurdle races, but played around a little bit on the flat last fall and didn’t get much out of her after two starts at Laurel. Come wintertime, she sent Thursday Girl to Camden (South Carolina) to train with Richard Valentine. “She had been schooling great there and ran twice over jumps, then we brought her back and gave her a layoff. Both Zach (Miller’s jump rider husband) and I said she came back better than ever. After the layoff, I called Brittany and told her she feels great. I sent the filly to her June 1 and a week later, she had a solid second place finish in Delaware.”
Sent off at 12-1, Thursday Girl paid $26.20. $5.60, and $4.20. Sun Cross returned $8.00 and $4.00. Buzzaway paid $3.20.
Bred in Virginia by Knockgriffin Farm, the 4-year-old daughter of Speightster out of the Alphabet Soup mare Souper Miss notched her first stakes score for a career record of 11-3-1-1 with career earnings of $160,110.
The Estate of R Larry Johnson’s homebred Noquestionaboutit proved best down the stretch over Mystic Seaport in the Glenn Petty to make her first stakes try a winning one.
Trained by Mike Trombetta and with Jorge Ruiz in the irons, Noquestionaboutit beat the odds-on favorite by 1½ lengths, completing the 5½ furlongs in 1:02.87 over a “firm” turf course.
After breaking sharply, Noquestionaboutit applied pressure to Lenamagnetta who led her six rivals through opening calls of :22.17 and :44.79. After taking the lead through the turn, Noquestionaboutit was headed after Mystic Seaport cut the corner sharply to the lead at the top of the stretch. Noquestionaboutit responded with class to beat the odd-on favorite across the wire. Three Times rallied late for third.
“She broke really good, close to the speed,” Ruiz said. “When I asked her in the stretch, she quickened to win. That’s my first time to ride her. She responded very well and I think she is a very nice filly.”
Noquestionaboutit returned $10.60, $3.00, and $2.10. Mystic Seaport paid $2.20 and $2.10. Three Times paid $3.00.
Bred in Virginia by Johnson, the 4-year-old daughter of Great Notion out of the Street Magician mare Magician’squestion has a career record of 6-2-1-0 with $119,600 in earnings.
With a $26,901 carryover in the Late Pick 5 and $1,370 in the Old Dominion 6, live racing resumes at Colonial Downs on Wednesday July 23 with a first post of 12:30 p.m. ET.
