Debra Roma Photography
William Punk, Jr. and Philip DiLeo’s Hessonite made it all look very easy in Friday’s $100,000 Irish Linnet Stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares, crossing the wire with a four-plus length advantage after a patient and confident ride by Ramon Dominguez.
Morning line odds-on favorite to win the Irish Linnet, and bet down to .65-1 by the time the gates opened, Hessonite was still looking for her first victory as a 4-year-old. After beginning the year with an off-the-board finish in the Grade 3 Beaugay, which her trainer David Donk calls “just a throw-out,” the chestnut daughter of Freud suffered back-to-back tough luck runner-up finishes to her arch-rival in the division, Gitchee Goomie. In the Mount Vernon on May 27 at Belmont Park, Hessonite was jammed up in traffic in upper stretch. In the Grade 3 “Doc” Penny Memorial at Parx Racing on July 3, she ran out of real estate while making a strong late run.
Breaking from post two of six to go one mile over Saratoga’s yielding inner turf course, Hessonite got cleanly out of the gate and then took back to occupy fifth position at the rail, while Mystic City led the field into the backstretch through early fractions of 24.13 and 48.47.
Six of the fillies and mares approached the far turn racing in pairs – Mystic City and Considerate up front, followed by Inimitable Romanee and Karakorum Electra, with Hessonite racing to the inside of Great Gracie Dane.
Debra Roma Photography
Once Hessonite angled out the top of the stretch and straightened away, the race was all but won. She passed her rivals with ease and cruised home to a 4 1/4-length victory in a final time of 1:36.41. Inimitable Romanee finished second, three-quarters of a length clear of Considerate, while Mystic City, Lemon Tiger, Karakorum Elektra and Great Gracie Dane completed the order of finish.
When asked whether he had any anxious moments during the race, winning trainer David Donk said, “Ramon rides her with so much confidence, I trust him,” adding, “You need the get the trip that’s all.” He had little concern about his filly’s ability to handle the yielding grass course (“She runs over any kind of ground. She won last spring over a real bog”), but was worried that the race might be taken off the turf after Thursday’s rain, and as a backup plan entered her in the Grade 3 Taylor Made Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth Park on Sunday.
Hessonite’s next start will likely be the $150,000 Yaddo for New York-bred fillies and mares to be run at Saratoga on August 17 at the distance of 1 1/16 miles on the turf.
Champion New York-bred Turf Female in 2011, Hessonite has now won four stakes: a pair of New York Stallion Series races at Belmont and Saratoga and the Justenuffhumor Ticonderoga. She has four additional stakes placings, two at the Grade 3 level. Her record now stands at 6-3-1 from 14 starts with $410,310 in career earnings.
Bred by Berkshire Stud and Waterville Lake Stables Limited, LLC, and foaled at Berkshire Stud, Hessonite was purchased by William Punk, Jr. as a 2009 Keeneland September Yearling for $27,000. She is one of eight winners out of Lakab, a winning daughter of Manila with three siblings who won at the Grade/Group 2 and 3 levels. Lakab has produced two other black type winners, Roanoke (Aus), by Danehill ($106,274) and European Rose, by Nureyev ($67,860). Her most recent foal is a New York-bred three-year-old filly by Johannesburg named Olympic Bride, who has started once in Brazil.
Hessonite’s sire Freud (Sequel Stallions New York) has been the leading turf sire in the state every year since 2007.
