Chelsea Durand Photo

Yorkiepoo Princess wins two-turn debut in Busher

by Brian Bohl

Danny J. Chen's Yorkiepoo Princess overtook Full House from the outside in the stretch to win the 38th running of the $150,000 Busher for 3-year-old fillies on a foggy Saturday at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The 9-5 favorite, Yorkiepoo Princess won her third consecutive stakes start, and second straight on the inner dirt track. The Edward Barker trainee also won her first start at two-turns, completing 1 1/16 miles in 1:47.69 and earned 50 qualify points towards a start in the Kentucky Oaks on May 5 at Churchill Downs.

Tiz Rae Anna set early fractions of 23.75 seconds for a quarter-mile and 48.14 in the half. Under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., Yorkiepoo Princess went five-wide out of the final turn and took the lead near the eighth pole, holding on for a 1 ¾-length victory.

"She handled everything. She still impresses me every time she runs," said Ortiz, who won for the third time on the day and improved to 4-for-4 on the filly.  "She's just an OK-looking filly, but when she runs, she can run.

"I wanted to break out of there and I could see myself sitting first [or] second, not too far off [the lead]," he added. "But he [Barker} told me, 'I've been working her, don't worry if she gets behind horses because I've been working her like that.' So I was able to put my hands down, relax, save ground, everything worked out good with her. She makes the lead and she waits on horses all the time, that's just her. She handled it perfect. She did everything right."

Yorkiepoo Princess paid $5.70 on a $2 win wager, increasing her career earnings to $244,811. She has won four of her last five starts, including victories in the Ruthless on January 14 and the Furlough on November 24.

"I thought it was a great trip," Barker said. "He rode her perfect. She ran the race basically like we trained her: to rate a little bit and try to come off of the pace, and she was able to do it.

"We actually changed the training on her," he continued. "I've been breezing her from the finish line seven-eighths of a mile, three-quarters of a mile so that we could take the speed away from her going into the first turn and that's exactly what happened."

Full House, for trainer Jimmy Jerkens, earned 20 qualifying points with the runner-up finish. Tiz Rae Anna, a 37-1 longshot, earned 10 points with a third-place finish for trainer John Toscano, Jr. and No Sweat, in fourth place, garnered five points for trainer Todd Pletcher.

Heavenly Score, Thirsforthecup, Banty's Girl, Tiz Rude, Bride Street and Spanish Harlem completed the order of finish.