Pipsy takes them all the way in G2 Intercontinental
Woodford Thoroughbreds’ Pipsy made every pole a winning one under Jose Ortiz to capture Thursday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Intercontinental, a 5 1/2-furlong Mellon turf sprint for older fillies and mares on Day Two of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, at Saratoga Race Course.
Trained by Will Walden, the 4-year-old Kodiac bay made the grade in her only previous trip to New York when overcoming a troubled start to rally from last-of-10 and 10 lengths off the pace to best familiar foe Kairyu and capture the Grade 3 Soaring Softly last May at Belmont at the Big A in her stateside debut.
Pipsy took a polar opposite approach on a warm afternoon at the Spa, breaking well and showing the way through splits of 21.74 seconds and 44.20 over the firm footing with Kairyu pressing to her outside in second and mutuel favorite and defending race winner Future Is Now saving ground in third.
“She outbroke everybody and she passed the horses in the first fifty, one hundred yards and I took her to the lead and let her be happy,” Ortiz said.
Time to Dazzle made an outside rally late in the turn as Twirling Queen, who steadied down the backstretch, tried to advance between horses with the Paco Lopez-piloted Future Is Now waiting for racing room along the rail.
Pipsy maintained command out of the turn and proved resilient down the lane as Future Is Now tried to quicken up the fence, but could not pass the frontrunner, who scored by a half-length in a final time of 1:00.98.
“She was happy all the way around,” Ortiz said. “At the quarter pole when they came to us, I was full of horse. We were rolling. I felt like she was running, and I knew with the speed that she had, passing the eighth pole it would take a really, really serious racehorse to pass me because she was rolling.”
Future Is Now completed the exacta by three-quarter lengths over Kairyu with Time to Dazzle, the step-slow breaking and late-running Pandora’s Gift, Danse Macabre, Creed’s Gold, On Command and Twirling Queen rounding out the order of finish. Main-track only entrant Run for the Hills was scratched.
Lopez tipped his cap to the winner.
“I was in great position and then she opened up a little bit and I had to come up the rail,” Lopez said. “She still had room in the one hole, and she closed down a little bit but she [Pipsy] never came back.”
Pipsy made her first three starts in her native Ireland for trainer Ger Lyons, graduating at second asking traveling six-furlongs over yielding turf in September 2023 at The Curragh before taking the five-furlong Legacy over synthetic one month later at Dundalk. She was subsequently purchased for $929,489 at the 2023 Tattersalls December Mare Sale and transferred to Walden.
In addition to her Soaring Softly coup, she was a prominent second in the Grade 2 Music City in September at Kentucky Downs and entered from a two-length score in a Keeneland turf allowance in April.
Walden said the speedy Pipsy has improved from 3-to-4.
"To accelerate, to go 21 and three, and then still come home the way she did, she is incredible,” Walden said. “I think horses if you give them that break from three to four, they can stay the same or really take a jump forward, and we are just blessed that she has taken a jump forward."
Walden indicated Pipsy could stay at the Spa for a start in the Grade 3, $175,000 Caress on July 19.
"Yes, probably. We are going to keep her here over the summer. She trained well up here last summer,” Walden said. “You get to breeze on the turf course here, which in Kentucky can be a little iffy. So we will keep her here and probably go to the Caress. We will see how she comes out of this and talk to the owners, but that is a likely spot."
Pipsy, bred by Noel Finegan, banked $110,000 in victory while improving her record to 9-5-2-0. She returned $12.40 for a $2 win bet.
Live racing resumes Friday at Saratoga Race Course for Day Three of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, featuring four Grade 1 events in the $750,000 New York presented by Rivers Casino [Race 12], the $500,000 Ogden Phipps presented by Ford [Race 9], the $500,000 DK Horse Acorn [Race 11], and the $500,000 Just a Game presented by Resolute Racing [Race 13]; along with the Grade 2, $300,000 Bed o' Roses in Race 6; and the Grade 2, $250,000 Belmont Gold Cup in Race 10. First post on the 14-race card is 11:40 a.m. Eastern with gates opening at 10 a.m.
America’s Day at the Races will present daily coverage and analysis of the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.belmontstakes.com/event-info/tv-schedule.
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