A one-eyed horse, as its name implies, Un Ojo (Laoban) took the shortest route on the Oaklawn main track increasingly affected by rain and found his best stride in the last 50 yards, overcoming a bad luck The path of purity (Quality Sugar) to the 75-1 disappointment of GII Rebel S. on Saturday in [not-so] Hot waterfall.
Out of speed from his inner draw, Kavod (meadow) duel with GIII hero Southwest S. Newgrange (Violence) goes through the wire for the first time and runs out of the inside through a few openings at: 23.42. Un Ojo scraped paint from the middle of the early lap, then was slightly controlled by Ramon Vasquez to easily finish third when the Rebel field reached the half-mile marker.
Around the same time that John Velazquez was starting to get serious aboard the previously undefeated Newgrange, Vazquez chased Un Ojo to land a shot over the fence near the entrance to the pitch. Unable to take full advantage at the time, Un Ojo fell back to fourth as Ethereal Road, stuck for the entire ride, rewinding outside Newgrange to form a row of three roughly three sixteen from home. Although doing it was the hardest on something with very sticky surfaces, Ethereal Road crashed straight ahead in the open and looked like he was at home, but Un Ojo found his second wind. Its two closest to the track with 16 miles to race and is the closest home. Haircut line (Race day) raced in the final winner’s slip line for most of the race, losing a bit of momentum as he veered toward the fence near the last 1/8th of a mile and hit the line to just miss a second . Newgrange couldn’t have done better than Friday.
Un Ojo graduated in second place on this coach claim at Delta Downs on November 5 and finished fourth for a 15-day break in Jean Lafitte Futurity before joining Tony Dutrow’s warehouse to take advantage of the program. State bred in New York. Closely defeated and struggling for second in the New York Stallion Series S. at the Aqueduct on December 18, the March pony pushed through a strong finish after Early Voting (Gunman) in the modest and widely criticized innovation of GIII Withers S. at Big A February 5.
Genealogical notes:
Un Ojo was the first ranked winner and fourth bet winner overall from the second to the races for the late Laoban, who passed away at the age of 8 last May. He is the 10th black category winner of the stallion and the third winner at the graded overall level.
Southern Equine Stable, who raced Laoban with a 27-1 defeat in the 2016 GII Jim Dandy S., acquired the pony multi-stock stake dam for $40,000 with this pony in utero at Fasig-Tipton New York 2018 fall mix for sale in Saratoga. Risk a Chance is the daughter of GSW Seeking the Ante, whose daughter four times won the Mineral Scientist stock (Mineshaft) produced SW Can You Digit (Tiznow). Un Ojo’s third dam was the Class I two-surface winning Antespend, acquired by Chester and Mary Bromans’ Chestertown Farm for $900,000 as a race-age horse at the 1997 Keeneland April Sale, who became Dam of Bromans’ hero Friends Lake GI Florida Derby (AP Indy). Risk a Chance’s last listing product is this year’s 2 year old pony by GhostzapperThe son of 2014 Southern Equine GI winner Whitney S. is Moreno.
Saturday, Oaklawn . Park
REBEL S.-HOLD$1,000,000, Oaklawn, 2-26, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:45.69, ft.
first-UN OJO, 117, g, 3, by Laoban
Beat One: Risk One Chance (MSP, $139,825), by AP Indy
2nd Smash: Search for Ante, by Searching for Gold
3rd Damage: Spend first, by spending a Buck
BLACK TYPE WIN 1, TYPE 1 WINNER. O-Cypress
Creek Equine LLC; B-Southern Equine Stables, LLC (NY); Difficult
Courville; J-Ramon A. Vazquez. 600,000 dollars. Lifetime record:
6-2-2-0, $776,321. Nick Werk Rating: A +++. *Triple Plus*
Click to view eNicks report & pedigree of 5 children.
2-The path of purity117, c, 3, Quality Sugar–Sustained, by War
The brazenness. TYPE 1 BLACK, TYPE OF BLACK LEVEL 1. ($90,000
Ylg ’20 HOLD). O-Aaron Sones; B-Paul Pompa (KY); TD.
Wayne Lukas. 200,000 dollars.
3–Haircut line117, c, 3, Race Day – Encounter, by the South
Image. ($15,000 Wlg ’19 KEENOV). O-WSS Racing, LLC; B-Susan
Forrester & Judy Curry (KY); T-John Alexander Ortiz. 100,000 dollars.
Margin: HF, NO, 1 1/4. Odds: 75.40, 15.80, 6.50.
Also Ran: Kavod, Chasing Time, Newgrange, Dash Attack, Ben Diesel, Stellar Tap, Cairama, Texas Red Hot.
Click to view Equibase.com chartthe PP of TJCIS.com or Free Equineline.com catalog style genealogy. VIDEO sponsored by TVG.
