Lezendary wins Cicada for fun, Rodriguez one away from 1,000

by Heather Pettinger

Trainer Rudy Rodriguez edged one step closer to joining the 1,000-win club on Sunday at Aqueduct Racetrack when Zayat Stable's homebred Lezendary drew off to a clear victory in the $100,000 Cicada for 3-year-old fillies at six furlongs.

Lezendary's win was career No. 999 for Rodriguez, who saddled a trio of entrants in Sunday's feature race, also including post-time favorite Strategic Dreams and Danyelli.

Breaking from the rail, fellow Zayat color-bearer Danyelli vied intently for the early lead while Lezendary, sent off at 9-2, left the gate cleanly under Trevor McCarthy and settled off her stablemate through a 23.41-second opening quarter-mile. Lezendary, however, would wait no more as the field reached the top of the turn, repelling an outside challenge from Gibby and blasting by Danyelli with a four-wide move.

Lezendary held a four-length advantage at the head of lane and was kept busy down the stretch to win by 3 ¼ lengths over a late-closing Shamrock Rose. The gray Zensational filly completed the sprint in 1:11.16. She returned $11.40 for a $2 win wager.

Gibby was third, followed by Strategic Dreams, Danyelli, Aunt Babe, and Gypsy Janie to complete the order of finish.

The victory was McCarthy's second aboard Lezendary, having ridden the filly in her 5 ¼-length maiden-breaking score on January 14. Her maiden win came in her fourth career start, after two on-the-board finishes last year, and her first try with blinkers in the afternoon.

"I really liked her going into the race," McCarthy said. "I really like the way she broke her maiden and putting the blinkers on, she improved. Today, there was a couple of tough horses in here, but I thought it was pretty wide open. They gave her a lot of time off to get ready for this race and I was just lucky I had the privilege to guide her around there. The game plan was to get away good. If I was on the lead, great, if not, just stalk. We went a slow pace early, so she was real handy for me. I just left her on the best part of the track and when we kicked for home, she really dropped down and took off."

Lezendary improved her record to two wins, a second and a third from five starts for earnings of $118,100.

"We were very proud of all the fillies we ran," said Rodriguez. "Lezendary broke very alertly and put herself in a position to win the race. She did everything we asked. She had a nice layoff and it looked like the blinkers did the job, so we're very happy to see her run that way. She broke sharp. She looked like she does in the mornings. I told Trevor, if she broke the way she did last time then just take it from there."