BREEDER’S CUP : JUVENILE FILLIES : A Sire’s Line Remains Busy : Phone Trick probably should have won an Eclipse in 1986. His daughter, Phone Chatter, makes amends.
Phone Chatter did what her sire never got a chance to do. In the process, she also clinched an Eclipse Award, an honor her father probably deserved.
Seven years after an injury kept Phone Trick, perhaps the nation’s top sprinter, from participating in the Breeders’ Cup, his daughter won the $1-million Juvenile Fillies after a stretch battle with Sardula.
Ridden by Laffit Pincay and trained by Richard Mandella, the same connections Phone Trick had, Phone Chatter settled off the moderate pace set by Sardula while wide throughout and got up to win by a head in 1:43 for 1 1/16 miles. Heavenly Prize, the 9-5 favorite on the strength of two victories in New York, was third, three lengths behind Sardula.
It looked similar to the Oak Leaf Stakes four weeks earlier with a few differences. Sardula, who easily defeated Phone Chatter in their first meeting, the seven-furlong Del Mar Debutante on Sept. 4, got away with slower fractions (23 2/5, 47 2/5 and 1:11 2/5 for six furlongs) Saturday, and Phone Chatter wasn’t quite as close to the pace as she was last time.
After moving up to join the leaders on the turn, Phone Chatter, the 2-1 third choice, looked like the Juvenile Fillies was hers for the taking. “I thought we had Sardula cold at the top of the stretch,†Mandella said.
Pincay felt the same way, but Eddie Delahoussaye and Sardula were far from finished. The two fillies raced as a team, and for an instant, it looked as if Sardula, who was coupled with Rhapsodic, was going to come back and win.
This is where Mandella and owner Herman Sarkowsky didn’t mind having Pincay, who at 46, still finishes as well as any jockey in the business.
“The other filly kept coming back, but every time I hit my filly, she kept responding,†Pincay said. “She can be a little bit tough . . . you really have to get after her. I consider Sardula a great filly, so this says a lot about (Phone Chatter).
“It’s always great to win a race like this. It feels like you’ve won the Kentucky Derby again.â€
Breeders’ Cup victories are nothing new for Pincay, who had six others before Saturday. But it was a novel experience for Mandella, who won his first in his fifth try, then came back in about 2 1/2 hours and did it again with Kotashaan in the Turf.
“I was part owner (20%) of Phone Trick as well as trainer and not getting him into the Breeders’ Cup (in 1986 at Santa Anita) was the biggest disappointment of my life,†Mandella said. “Today’s win was the biggest thrill.â€
Making her first start around two turns, Heavenly Prize didn’t appear comfortable racing along the inside.
“I didn’t have a clean run from the three-eighths pole home,†jockey Mike Smith said. “I had the chance to get through (inside Sardula), but when I pushed the button, she didn’t accelerate.â€
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