Praying springs the upset in G3 Prioress

Newtown Anner Stud Farm’s Praying stunned a field of five with a rallying victory as the 21-1 longest shot on the board in Saturday’s Grade 3, $175,000 Prioress, a six-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies, at Saratoga Race Course.

Trained by Robert Medina, the Vekoma dark bay entered from a distant off-the-board finish in an optional claimer over this distance in May at Churchill Downs where she broke through the gate before giving brief chase in the early stages and tiring. Praying showed no signs of weakening on Saturday when rallying from fourth to notch her first stakes victory and Medina’s second career graded score in his first trip to the Spa winner’s circle.

“In May, she completely lost her mind - the worst I've ever seen a horse act in the paddock,” Medina recalled. “She was beat before they gave the call to post - she had the one-post and she ran through the gate before the race and then she ran off for three-eighths of a mile and stopped.

"I had a race - she was actually in at Ellis at the end of July - our plan was to run there to get to this race, but they canceled the races because of the heat,” Medina continued. “I didn't want to just run her - I just figured we'd bring her up here and train her to this race. We schooled her here and she was absolutely perfect. She's been perfect since we got here. I knew she was sitting on a good one. I was hoping to get blacktype, but I didn't think she was going to run bonkers like that.”

Praying was piloted to victory by Eric Cancel after her named rider Jose Lezcano was injured Friday at Saratoga. She exited the outermost post 5 and settled at the back as the sharp-starting Long Neck Paula took command through the early stages.

Flat Out Time and Stone Smuggler tracked close behind the pacesetter with a wide-running Praying biding her time in fourth ahead of Delightful Claire, the post-time favorite and expected pace presence who stumbled at the start under Luan Machado. Long Neck Paula marked the quarter-mile in 22.70 seconds over the fast footing, and Ricardo Santana, Jr. nudged along Stone Smuggler to take up second position over Flat Out Time.

The field exited the turn and Cancel made his move aboard Praying, who was already improving position three-wide and accelerated with another burst when Cancel shook the reins. Long Neck Paula dug in under encouragement from Dylan Davis, but Praying was rolling through the half-mile in 45.74 and Delightful Claire was finding her best stride widest of all.

Praying took command passing the eighth pole and drew off impressively to post the 3 1/2-length score in a final time of 1:10.10 over Delightful Claire, who showed courage to get her nose down over Flat Out Time at the wire after her poor start took her out of her preferred running style. Long Neck Paula and Stone Smuggler completed the order of finish while Rojo Rita was scratched.

Medina said Praying showed her class when second to the subsequent dual graded stakes-winning Rusty Arnold trainee Echo Sound in the Myrtlewood in October at Keeneland in addition to a second in the Southern Hospitality in March at Oaklawn Park.

"When she ran at Keeneland and was second to Echo Sound, she did all the dirty work that race,” he said of the prominent effort. “She chased a filly, put her away and then Rusty's filly went right on by her and I don't think there's a better 3-year-old filly going three-quarters than that filly. I ran her at Oaklawn and she ran very well. The May race set us back. I thought she was sitting on a big one and I thought she was good enough to run with these.”

Cancel said delicate hands made for a divine victory.

“I had a wonderful trip. They told me just try to stay away from the filly’s mouth, try to keep her comfortable. That is what I did,” Cancel explained. “The post helped me 100 percent with it. I kind of felt like I had a lot of horse going to the three-eighths. I kind of knew [they] were going to have to run pretty hard down [to the wire] to beat her.

“Once I made the lead, she just kept on going,” he added. “Never gave up on me. I’m just really happy and grateful for the opportunity.”

Medina noted the Grade 2 Raven Run on October 18 at Keeneland is the next logical spot for Praying.

Machado said the Phil Bauer-trained Delightful Claire, the 3-4 mutuel favorite, was brave to recover from the stumbling beginning in her stakes debut off a local 9 1/4-length maiden romp on August 2 traveling seven furlongs.

“She ran amazing,” Machado said. “She was just cutting back in distance. She could’ve used a little more track, a little more distance would’ve helped, but she stumbled out of the gate. That kind of took me out of the race a little bit. That took her momentum away. I’m not saying it cost us the race, but that would be a factor. They took advantage of her missing the break. Then, she was great.”

Bred in Kentucky by Jeff Kerber, Praying was a $410,000 purchase at the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and is out of the winning Bernardini mare Pray for Leslie, who also produced Grade 1-placed Alys Beach. Pray for Leslie is a half-sister to C J’s Gal, who produced Grade 3-winner Hidden Connection.

Praying banked $96,250 in victory while improving her record to 8-2-4-0 and returning $44.40 on a $2 win ticket.

Live racing resumes Sunday at Saratoga Race Course with a 14-race card, headlined by the Grade 1, $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup in Race 5 – a “Win and You’re In” for the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar – and the $135,000 Disco Partner in Race 10. First post is 11:20 a.m. Eastern.

Highlighted by the 107th running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, a special edition of Saratoga Live presented by Caesars Sportsbook will air on FOX from 1-2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, August 31. 

Saratoga Live will present live coverage and analysis of the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course on the networks of FOX Sports. For the broadcast schedule and channel finder, visit nyra.com/tv.

NYRA Bets is the official wagering platform of Saratoga Race Course, and the best way to bet every race of the summer meet. Available to horse players nationwide, the NYRA Bets app is available for download today on iOS and Android at NYRABets.com.