Chelsea Durand Photo

Vertical Oak stands tall in Garland of Roses

by Keith McCalmont

Kirk and Judy Robison's Vertical Oak, patiently piloted by Eric Cancel, settled off an early speed duel before making a winning move in upper stretch to capture the 33rd running of the $100,000 Garland of Roses for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and upward, on Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Trained by Steve Asmussen, the ultra-consistent Vertical Oak now boasts a career record of 9-3-4 from 20 starts, including seven scores in stakes competition. The 4-year-old Giant Oak chestnut, who captured the Grade 2 Prioress at Saratoga Race Course last season, arrived at Saturday's six-furlong test from a convincing win on November 4 in the Dream Supreme at Churchill Downs.

Yorkiepoo Princess, fresh off a victory in the Autumn Days on November 25 at Aqueduct, set a swift early tempo in the Garland of Roses, marking the quarter-mile in 22.26 seconds and the half-mile in 45.69 while under pressure from last out Pumpkin Pie champ Sower.

Vertical Oak, settled in third in the early running, was angled wide at the top of the lane to take a half-length lead and had more than enough in reserve to earn the victory in a final running time of 1:11.28. Yorkiepoo Princess stayed on strong to complete the exacta, a length in front of Sower. Tigalalu completed the order of finish in a field reduced to four horses with the scratch of Dream Pauline.

With a perfect in-the-money record of 4-1-3 from eight starts this season, Vertical Oak continues to please her connections while branching out to earn victories at Pimlico, Churchill Downs and now Aqueduct.

"She's gotten better with age. She settled really well and ran great. She's put a bunch of races together now really nicely," said assistant trainer Toby Sheets. "She's been in New York and won last year at Saratoga [G2 Prioress] and has trained well here. She likes it here. She likes it everywhere, just about."

Cancel said that all went according to plan in the compact feature event.

"I had a wonderful trip," said Cancel. "I knew that the two horses on the inside, they were going to come out of there running. I had her planned just to sit right off of them, and that was it. It worked out very well."

Vertical Oak, bred in Kentucky by Millennium Farms, banked $55,000 in victory. She paid $3.30 to win as the mutuel favorite.

Live racing continues on Sunday at Aqueduct with an eight-race card with a first post-time of 12:50 p.m. Every day during the month of December, NYRA Bets members who place wagers on Aqueduct will receive a three percent rebate. For more information on the NYRA Bets December three percent bonus, visit NYRABets.com.