NYRA/Chelsea Durand
By Sarah Mace
Tri-County Stables homebred Storied Lady (Read the Footnotes), winner of the Bay Ridge Stakes over the Aqueduct inner oval on New Year’s Eve 2014, got back into the Aqueduct winner’s circle on Sunday when she won the inaugural running of the 1 1/16-mile, $100,000 Biogio’s Rose with a game effort from off the pace.
Storied Lady had been knocking at the door in her two prior starts, a close-up third-place finish to Saythreehailmary’s and Sheriffa in the 2015 Bay Ridge on December 12 and a second to Perfect Freud in an open second-level allowance / optional claiming event on January 3. To win the Biogio’s Rose, she had to turn the tables on all three of these rivals plus two more.
Fourth choice of the six New York-bred fillies and mares at odds of 4-1, Storied Lady settled near the back of a compact group in the early stages of the race, biding her time at the rail and saving ground as Perfect Freud led the field through early fractions of 23.58 and 48.20.
NYRA/Joe Labozzetta
Beginning her bid in the far turn, and slipping neatly up the rail at the head of the lane, Storied Lady rallied at the rail. With a furlong to go she and Saythreehailmary’s passed Perfect Freud on either side and began a tooth and claw fight to the finish.
Storied Lady dug in gamely at the rail, and turned back Saythreehailmary’s’ every effort, ultimately prevailing by a determined head. Perfect Freud finished five lengths back in third, followed in order by Jc’s Shooting Star, In Spite of Mama and Sheriffa. After a mile in 1:39.19, the final time for the 8 1/2 furlongs was 1:45.64. [VIDEO]
Winning rider Irad Ortiz, Jr. thanked the connections for the mount and said, “She’s a nice filly. She broke out of there and came from off the pace. I was able to get her to relax, I got through on the inside and she closed well. She was ready today.”
John Hertler, who trains Storied Lady for Tri-County Stables, commented, “She was running good races and finishing right there and, today, everything came together. She got through on the rail and battled that horse hard and held them off. I was looking for that wire.”
Foaled at Keane Stud in Amenia, Storied Lady is one of eight winners from eight starters, and one of two stakes winners, out of Wide Barrel, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Broad Brush. Her second foal Love Abroad (Not For Love) is a stakes winner and earner of more than $265,000; Barrel of Love by the same sire is a stakes placed runner who has earned nearly $400,000.
Storied Lady now has five wins, including two stakes victories, three seconds and six thirds in 23 starts and has earned $355,651.
