Read the Footnotes’ Rightly So Voted 2010 Eclipse Finalist

by Sarah Mace

New York-bred Rightly So has been selected by voting members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters as a finalist for the 2010 Eclipse Award for Female Sprinter.

Bred by Sequel 2003, owned by Zayat Stables and trained by Tony Dutrow, Rightly So had a brilliant four-year-old campaign on the racetrack, which she capped by commanding $600,000 in the auction ring at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November Sale. Rightly So is out of the unraced Out of Place mare Fit Right In, who in the same week sold for $1,050,000 at the 2010 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale. Rightly So’s sire, Read the Footnotes, has been based in New York since 2006 and stands for Sequel Stallions[2] at Keane Stud[3].

On the racetrack Rightly So’s typical modus operandi was to head to the front and challenge the competition to run her down. The dark bay filly’s greatest triumph of the year took place on Travers Day at Saratoga, when she dominated the field of the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes, winning the race by four lengths, running the seven-furlong distance in 1:22.58 and posting a career-high Beyer Speed Figure of 100. On the Fourth of July weekend Rightly So also won the Grade 3 Bed o’ Roses Handicap at Belmont, and, in late May, finished second by a head in Belmont’s Grade 2 Vagrancy Handicap. Cornelio Velazquez was in the irons for all three graded stakes. In February and March at Aqueduct, the filly racked up close second and third place finishes in the restricted Broadway and Indistinctly Stakes (both run over off going), partnered for these starts with another Eclipse finalist, Ramon Dominguez.

Rightly So’s Ballerina turned out to be her last race of the year. She was a disappointing scratch on race day from the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at Churchill Downs, where she was favored on the morning line. With a record of 2-2-1 from five starts in 2010, Rightly So earned $278,500 for the year.

The other Eclipse finalists in the Female Sprinter category are Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Dubai Majesty (Essence of Dubai) and Grade 1 Test and Grade 1 Acorn Winner Champagne d’Oro (Medaglia d’Oro).

This year saw record participation of voters (94.8%), with 238 out of 251 casting a ballot. Winners of the 17 human and equine Eclipse categories will be announced at the 40^th annual Eclipse Awards dinner ceremony on Monday evening, January 17, at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in Miami Beach, Florida.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2011/01/07/rightly-so-eclipse-finalist/

---