Determined in the stretch, Melodic wins at first asking for Treadway/Gyarmati

by Sarah Mace

Melodic, a 2-year-old daughter of Tale of the Cat owned by Jeff Treadway’s Treadway Racing Stable and trained by Leah Gyarmati, bested a robust field of New York-bred juvenile fillies in her six-furlong unveiling at Saratoga on Wednesday afternoon, wearing down pacesetter Louisville First with a determined stretch drive.

Relatively ignored by bettors at odds of 19-1, Melodic got into stride after bumping briefly with second-time starter Louisville First while breaking from post two under Kendrick Carmouche. Once settled the filly sat a couple lengths off the pace in third at the fence as Louisville First led the nine-horse field through a first quarter-mile in a snappy 22.15.

Catching a breather in the far turn, the chestnut filly swung out three-wide for the stretch drive as the half-mile ticked by in 45.66, took over second and set her sights on the leader.

Closing inexorably and with a length still too make up at the three-sixteenths pole, Melodic steadily wore down Louisville First in the last furlong, gained the lead in the final sixteenth and edged away to a two-length victory in a final time of 1:12.03. Louisville First finished second, 2 3/4 lengths ahead of Acapella in third. [VIDEO[2]]

Gyarmati was impressed. Said the conditioner, “She got a great trip. [Kendrick Carmouche] gave her a great ride, but you’re always wondering, whatever spot you’re in, ‘Am I too close? Is she doing too much? Is she going to have anything left?’ And she did.”

Gyarmati added, ‘[Kendrick] said after he got off he felt pretty confident. When the dirt hit her in the face, she didn’t flinch. He said ‘I knew at the half-mile pole we were going to win.’” Gyarmati added with a smile, “I don’t know – that’s easy to say after the fact.”

It is special for Gyarmati to win for owner Jeff Treadway, for whom she has trained, most notably, multiple Grade 1 winner and $1.4-million earning filly Sweet Reason, graded stakes-winning colt Noble Moon and multiple Grade 1 stakes placed New York-bred filly Wonder Gal.

“[Jeff Treadway]’s put a lot of time and effort and money into the game and he’s been a great friend, too,” said Gyarmati. “We’ve kind of grown together. The meet kind of got off to a little bit of rocky start with some of the young horses that we have high hopes for, so I was glad that one of them came out and showed her stuff.”

Bred by Mia Gallo in partnership with Dave Stack, Mary Kopley, Sam Palazzole, Bernie Ryan and others, and foaled at Tom and Mia Gallo’s Bluestone Farm[3] in Cambridge, Melodic changed hands twice via public auction. Purchased by Off the Hook for $50,000 at the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale, she was hammered down to Patrice Miller/EQB in April at this year’s OBS spring 2-year-old sale for $150,000.

Melodic is the second winner out of Christina’s Melody a winning New York-bred daughter of Unbridled’s Song bred by Mia Gallo and Deborah Petrisak. Her third foal Echluath, a full sister to Melodic, is a five-time winner of nearly $130,000. The mare was bred to Frost Giant this spring.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2015/09/03/melodic-wins-at-first-asking/

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