Coady Photography
by Sarah Mace
Hot City Girl, owned by Sheila Rosenblum’s Lady Sheila Stable and trained by Linda Rice, was perhaps best known to this point as a promising half-sister to La Verdad, a multiple graded stakes winner and million dollar-earner for the same connections.
The talented sophomore made headlines in her own right on Saturday night in West Virginia when she enjoyed a breakthrough first stakes victory in frontrunning style in the Grade 3, $350,000 Charles Town Oaks.
The two-time winner and two-time stakes-placed daughter of City Zip added blinkers, perhaps tipping her hand that she would use her speed as her main weapon under jockey Jose Ortiz for the two-turn, seven-furlong tilt in the six-furlong Charles Town “bullring,”
Winner of state-bred allowance in January and placed just once during a steady diet of four stakes races since, Hot City Girl ended up as the fourth betting choice in the field of six at odds of 7-1.
Breaking from post three, Hot City Girl darted toward the front to take over the two path, then took possession of the coveted rail spot by the time the field entered the first turn.
Leading by a length, but pressed intently by Tootsie Rules through an opening quarter mile in 22.96 and a half in 46.74, Hot City Girl still kept at least a neck ahead of her rival through the far turn. Opening up at the top of the stretch, she hit the wire a 2 1/2-length winner.
Jose Ortiz savors Hot City Girl’s Charles Town Oaks victory (Coady Photography)
Temper Mint Patty completed a New York-bred exacta, closing from third to nose out Tootsie Rules for the place. White Clover, Fusaichi Red and 3-2 favorite Sarah Sis completed the order of finish. After three-quarters in 1:10.64, Hot City Girl completed the two-turn seven furlongs in a final time of 1:23.60. [VIDEO]
Trainer Linda Rice said, “We’re absolutely thrilled. I’d scratched her out of the Prioress when she drew the 1 [post] in a large field and I didn’t like the way the race set up for her. She was 6-to-1 in here, so it wasn’t like she was a big favorite or something, but Jose [Ortiz] rode a beautiful race.”
Added Rice, “We had been trying to get her graded placed or a graded win. She’s a half-sister to La Verdad and I’ve trained for Mrs. Rosenblum for a while, so this is special.” The conditioner mentioned the Grade 2, $250,000 Lexus Raven Run for 3yo fillies going 7 furlongs on the main track on October 17 at Keeneland as a possibility for Hot City Girl’s next start.
Bred by Eklektikos Stable LLC, and foaled, like La Verdad, at Chester and Mary Broman’s Chestertown Farm in Chestertown, Hot City Girl is another feather in the cap of her dam Noble Fire, a stakes-placed runner bred by Chester and Mary Broman also trained by Rice.
Rice bought Noble Fire for Eklektikos for $115,000 at the 2007 OBS Spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. In addition to stakes winner La Verdad and Hot City Girl, Noble Fire’s first foal, the speedy eight-time winner N. F.’s Destiny, has earned over $300,000 and all together, the mare’s progeny have earned over $1.8 million.
From three firsts and two seconds from nine career starts Hot City Girl has earned $344,150.
