Coady Photography
By Sarah Mace
Wonderment, a grey/roan daughter of New York-based sire Cosmonaut, stepped it up a notch in her graded stakes debut at Turfway Park on Saturday’s Spiral Stakes undercard, wiring a full field of 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 3, $100,000 Bourbonette Oaks.
Trained by Ken McPeek for owners Magdalena Racing and Chris Sterbenz, Wonderment came into the one-mile Bourbonette Oaks with three starts to her credit, none further than six furlongs.
After winning her Belmont unveiling last July 9 at five panels, she wheeled back just 10 days later to romp in the six-furlong Lynbrook Stakes by six-plus lengths. Returning to the races for her sophomore debut at Aqueduct on February 20, she finished a solid third against fellow New York-breds in the 6-furlong Franklin Square Stakes. Wonderment, who added Lasix for the first time on Saturday, posted a trio of works at Keeneland leading up to the Oaks.
The filly’s conditioner was curious to see how she would take the added distance. Said, McPeek last week, “We want to stretch her out once and see how she handles that. I think she’ll relish the stretch-out.” Relish the stretch-out, she did.
Drawn in post two (of 12) with Cornelio Velasquez, her Franklin Square pilot, back at the helm, and sent off as the 4-1 second choice, Wonderment outbroke 3-1 favorite Marquee Miss at the bell to emerge as the pacesetter. Traveling on the inside, she led the favorite by a half-length through a 23.25 first quarter and extended her advantage to a length along the backstretch and round the far turn while clocking a half in 47.07.
Shaking off her rival as she entered the stretch two-wide, Wonderment extended her lead to two lengths, then kicked away energetically in the final furlong to win by 3 3/4 lengths. Inconclusive (9-1) closed well to nose Marquee Miss for the place. After six furlongs in 1:13.05 the final time for the race was 1:39.04.
Cornelio Velasquez commented, “My filly was coming off a layoff in New York and she needed her race last time. She wanted to go to the lead and we had a lot of horse coming down the top of the stretch. She likes the distance and the synthetic track and she wanted to go easy on the lead.”
Alan Shell, assistant for McPeek said, “That last race (the Franklin Square) she was really sharp, and her gallops have been getting stronger and stronger, and her breezes have been so sharp, we were confident that she would like the route of ground.’
Continued Shell, “We work a lot of horses in company, young horses like her, but we can’t really work her in company. We probably spend more time in the morning trying to slow her down because we don’t want her to do too much. She used that speed today.”
Although the Bourbonette carries 50 eligibility points for the winner toward the May 6 Kentucky Oaks and Wonderment now sits in eighth on the “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” points leaderboard, McPeek told the DRF she is not likely to go. “She’ll probably go back to New York-bred company,” he said, “There is a seventh eighths race at Belmont [the $125,000 Bouwerie Stakes on May 30].”
Bred by Michael S. Landers and foaled at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, Wonderment sold as a weanling to Baccari Bloodstock for $24,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York Fall Mixed sale. Offered the following year at the 2014 Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale, she did not attain her reserve when bid up to $47,000.
An earner of $181,160 from three victories and a third, Wonderment is one of three winners, including six-figure earner Persuasive Devil (Closing Argument), from three foals to start out of A Wonder She is, a winning daughter of Three Wonders from the family of Videogenic. The mare currently has 2-year-old filly by Twirling Candy named Arabesque, and yearling colt by Discreetly Mine named Potential Danger and was bred last year to Itsmyluckyday.
Cosmonaut stands at Keane Stud in Amenia for a 2016 fee of $5,000.
