Picco Uno gets perfect trip to capture the Union Avenue

by Michael Johnson and Heather Pettinger

Executing a perfect stalk and pounce trip, Kennesaw Mountain Racing's Picco Uno drew clear of eight competitors in the stretch to win the $100,000 Union Avenue by 2 ¼ lengths on Thursday at Saratoga Race Course.  

Breaking from the outside post, Nirvana Stable's She's All Ready beat front-runners Court Dancer and Clipthecouponannie to the lead, setting up a stalking trip for Picco Uno who sat a length off She's All Ready through fractions of 22.05 seconds for the quarter-mile and 45.25 seconds for the half. In the stretch, jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. quickly separated Picco Uno from the field, easily holding off a game bid from favorite Quezon to complete the 6 ½-furlong sprint for New York-bred fillies and mares in a time of 1:16.57.

"I had a perfect trip, I broke the way I wanted. I broke running out of there and the horse beside me cleared me," Ortiz said. "She does better when she's alone outside of horses and that worked out for me better for me. I sat there, waited and when I asked her she was there for me."

Picco Uno, a 4-year-old daughter of Macho Uno, now has six wins in 12 starts. The Jason Servis trainee has hit the board 10 times with three seconds and one third. She was tested last time out, racing at the mile distance for the first time and finishing sixth on a sloppy track in the Critical Eye on May 29 at Belmont Park. Servis said the layoff and cutback in distance helped.   

"She definitely benefited from the time off since her last start," Servis said. "In that race it looked like she took a step back, so we gave her some time and she was able to regroup and run great today. She had a terrific breeze coming into this the other day. She ran like we were hoping she would. She drew off pretty good. She's an average looking filly, but she gets over the ground pretty good. I just told Irad she tries and hoping we got a good trip and it worked out."

Picco Uno paid $9.70 on a $2 win bet. The victory pushed her career earnings to $299,667.

Finishing third was Newman Racing's Absatootly, followed by Wonderment, Clipthecouponannie, Myfourchix, She's All Ready and Court Dancer.  

Hot City Girl was scratched.