NYRA/Chelsea Durand
J and M Racing Stables’ Uncle Southern, a 4-year-old filly by late New York sire Uncle Camie, won the $100,000 Union Avenue for New York-bred female sprinters in the slop on Thursday at Saratoga while making her stakes debut for trainer Linda Rice.
Drawn in the outside post of a five-horse field, reduced by one by the late scratch of Champagne Ruby, Uncle Southern shot out of the gate like a rocket, crossed over to race a couple paths off the rail and led the field through early fractions of 23.35 and 46.66 while preserving a comfortable one-length lead.
As Uncle Southern continued to show the way around the turn and into the head of the stretch, 5-2 second choice Sunny Desert cut the corner and challenged from the inside. Sunny Desert inched closer and closer in midstretch, but Uncle Southern dug in gamely under Luiz Saez and re-rallied to claim the victory by three-quarters of a length.
Make the Moment closed into third another 1 3/4 lengths back, getting a nose ahead of Vicki’s Dancer. Risky Rachel completed the order of finish. The final time for six and a half furlongs was 1:17.46 over the sloppy (sealed) going. [VIDEO]
Rice’s first reaction to the victory, was “She really dug in the stretch,” but, as both jockey and trainer concurred, a quick break was part of the master plan.
Luis Saez said, “We didn’t see a lot of speed [in the race], but we knew my filly had speed. Linda told me, ‘You can go on the lead, and let’s see what we’ve got.’ I thought someone was coming to get me, but she responded when I switched my stick [to my left hand].”
NYRA/Adam Coglianese
Rice added, “That was the plan. I thought we might have a little bit of a pace advantage in here. It didn’t look like there was a lot of speed, only Risky Rachel, and it was questionable whether she would like the mud. I thought we’d just jump away from there and get to the lead. It looked like the closers were winning earlier today which concerned me a bit, but I was hoping they’d leave us unattended on the pace and maybe that would work for us.”
Rice had options other than a stakes race for Uncle Southern, who cleared her second-level state-bred allowance condition in her most recent start on July 31 at Saratoga in an off-the-turf sprint contest. Rice decided, however, that the opportunity to run in the Union Avenue was too good to pass up. “I thought this was worth looking at,” Rice said. “I can run her an [open] “a-other-than” at any time. She [was] coming into the race well.”
The track condition was an additional factor in Rice’s final decision. “The last time we ran her it came off the turf, and she loved the mud. That might be her best surface. I noticed in her last race, when it looked like the forecast called for rain, I thought I’d give it a chance.”
Rice added, alluding to Uncle Southern’s damsire, “I think the Dixie Brasses excel on the mud, and I think that’s a big play for her. She seems to be coming into her best form now as a 4-year-old, and I think that’s helping as well.”
Owner/ breeder John Guerrera told The Saratoga Special, “This is more satisfying than you can know. When you see one like that you cry and I really did cry. You see them as babies and you remember them.
“It’s such a difference when you breed them. I literally see them within a week after they’re born. The weanlings eventually go to Florida, but I see them before they go and then three or four times after they go. I see them at every stage.”
Uncle Southern’s first stakes victory improves her career record to four wins, two seconds and one third from 12 starts and boosts her bankroll to $217,921.
Bred under the name of Uncle Camie Breeding Farm and foaled at Dutchess Views Farm in Pine Plains, Uncle Southern is the first starter and first winner out of Southern Statement, a New Jersey-bred by Dixie Brass who won 14 out of 72 career starts and earned $158,889. Uncle Southern’s sire Uncle Camie stood in New York from 2007 to 2012.
In his MSG Plus interview, Guerrera explained how his filly came to have a name like “Uncle Southern.” Guerrera was naming 18 foals at the time, with three selections for each, and she was the last in line. He said that he had become “a little tired,” and simply combined the names of sire and dam, confessing that if he had foreseen her success he might have done things differently.
