The Scintillating Weemissfrankie Still Perfect with G1 Victory in Oak Leaf Stakes

by Sarah Mace

With a flair for the dramatic, the late Sunriver’s Weemissfrankie rallied late to take the Grade 1, $250,000 Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday by a half length, sealing her second consecutive Grade 1 victory in three career starts, preserving a perfect win record and earning a trip to Louisville in November as the winner of a Breeders’ Cup Challenge race.

A chestnut daughter from the first crop of late New York sire Sunriver, Weemissfrankie won her five-furlong Del Mar debut on July 20 with a running-style that is starting to become a trademark, rallying from seventh in the final three-eighths to win by a half length. For her next start, trainer Peter Eurton took Weemissfrankie straight to the big leagues, the seven-furlong Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante Stakes at Del Mar, which she won by 1 1/4 lengths, again showing patience in the early stages and delivering a decisive kick down the lane.

Third time out in Grade 1 Oak Leaf, the talented filly had two questions to answer: would she handle the dirt after her success on Polytrack, and would she stretch out effectively to 1 1/16 miles? The answer to both was “yes,” even though she might not have absolutely relished the surface switch.

Out of the gate alertly from post seven of eight under regular rider Rafael Bejarano, Weemissfrankie tucked in comfortably at the rail in fifth position five lengths off the lead in the early stages. As Self Preservation, tracked by Candrea, set a good pace for the first half mile (22.94 and 46.69), Bejarano took Weemissfrankie off the rail for the backstretch run.

In the far turn Weemissfrankie made up ground and moved up into fourth as she tipped out four wide, but still had three lengths to make up on the new leader Candrea and Charm the Maker, who had moved up into second from fourth.

In the final furlong, Weemissfrankie steadily edged forward under urging, steadily caught up to her rivals and hit the wire – still on the advance – with a half length advantage over Candrea, who finished a half length clear of Charm the Maker. Weemissfrankie’s final time over the fast going was 1:42.92.

After the race Peter Eurton said, “You don’t know how they’re going to run from synthetic to dirt until they do it. She loves synthetic at Hollywood [Park], she loves synthetic at Del Mar; did she like this as much? I don’t know. She didn’t like the dirt hitting her in the face down the backside, [jockey Rafael Bejarano] told me.” Although Weemissfrankie will most likely run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt, Eurton indicated that he would not rule out the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies turf.

Bejarano said, “She was kind of uncomfortable down in the stretch the first time, so I tried to keep her clear after the first turn and get her in good position. After I found my position I tried to cover a little bit and get her relaxed. When I got to the top of the stretch I put her clear, and like always, she showed me a big kick in the stretch.”

Weemissfrankie, Peter Eurton’s first (and now first and second) Grade 1 winner is clearly something very special on a number of levels. She issues from the first crop of Grade 1-winning sire Sunriver, a full brother to champion Ashado, who stood two seasons at Empire Stud/Vinery New York[4] prior to his premature death in August 2009, raising the question of what “might have been” had her sire survived. Also, Weemissfrankie is named for Hollywood actor and television director Frank Alesia who died earlier this year, and his many-headed ownership group all “miss Frankie”: Alesia’s wife Sharon; professional skateboarder and MTV star Rob Dyrdek; Mike Mellen’s Bran Jam Stable; Joe Ciaglia’s Ciaglia Stable; and former jockey’s agent Nick Cosato

Bred by Hidden Point Farm, Inc. and foaled at Empire Stud (now Vinery NY[6]), Weemissfrankie, who has now earned $337,800 in three winning starts, sold for $175,000 at the OBS April two-year-old sale, purchased by Eurton on behalf of Joe Ciaglia from Eddie Woods.

The seventh foal, and second registered New York-bred, out of the unraced Meadowlake mare Starinthemeadow – a Hidden Point Farm homebred – Weemissfrankie has five winning siblings, including four-time winner and six-figure earner Afillyation (Gimmeawink). A half-sister to multiple stakes winner and Grade 1 producer Program Pick (Peterhof), Starinthemeadow also has a yearling full sister to Weemissfrankie and a weanling filly by It’s No Joke. She was bred this year to Leroidesanimaux.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2011/10/03/weemissfrankie-oak-leaf/

---