NYRA/Jessica Hansen
Ears pricked and cruising comfortably, Hessonite crossed the wire 3 3/4 lengths ahead of her competition when she successfully defended her Showcase Day Ticonderoga title in the $175,000 race for fillies and mares contested at 1 1/16 mile on Belmont’s Widener turf course.
After finishing troubled fifth in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl on September 29, Hessonite was reunited with her regular partner Ramon Dominguez for the Ticonderoga. The .35-1 favorite employed familiar tactics after the break, sitting eight or nine lengths off the pace in the early going, aloof from the lively action up front where Kibosh, Divadora, Wholelottashakin and Considerate contested and traded the lead.
Center, blaze (NYRA/Adam Coglianese)
Advancing into closer contact with the main body of the field after a half mile in 49.61 over the yielding Widener turf, Hessonite ended up behind a wall of horses entering the stretch, waiting for something to open up.
In upper stretch Dominguez found a seam in the three path and all he had to do was ask. The pair glided through, and Hessonite took charge of affairs in the final furlong, opening up to 3 3/4 length victory in 1:47.46 for the 1 1/16 miles on the yielding turf.
Shakeira closed well into second, edging out Gitchee Goomie, who will be retired after the Ticonderoga, by a neck. Kibosh, one of the early contenders finished five lengths back in fourth.
Ramon Dominguez was all admiration after the race. “Today, she was just taking me there. Turning for home I was behind a wall of horses, but I felt that one way or another, I was confident she would find a way through, and she did. Honest to God – and I’m not just saying this because she won the race, I’ve been saying it for a while – she’s one of my all-time favorite horses to ride. Whatever you want her to do, she will do it. Such a nice, nice horse to ride.”
NYRA/Adam Coglianese
Trainer David Donk was just as warm in praise of his filly. “What can I say? A really nice filly. It’s a pleasure that she’s in my barn. I had a lot of confidence in Ramon. I’m biased – I think he and Johnny [Velazquez] are the two best riders in the world. It looked like the field was going to separate turning for home, whether he wanted to go inside or outside. They’re a great team.”
Hessonite is catalogued in the November sale at Keeneland, but in Donk’s words “I don’t think she goes there.”
Hessonite, a 4-year-old daughter of New York’s leading turf sire Freud (Sequel Stallions New York) owned by William J. Punk, Jr. and Philip DiLeo, has waged a stellar campaign in 2012 and established her dominance in the female New York-bred turf division.
After starting the year with an off-the-board finish in the Grade 3 Beaugay, Hessonite scored a pair of back-to-back close runner-up finishes to Gitchee Goomie in Belmont’s Mount Vernon and the Grade 3 Dr. James Penny Memorial Handicap at Parx Racing, and then collected victories in the Irish Linnet and Yaddo, both run at Saratoga, and the John Hettinger at Belmont on September 9.
Last year Hessonite won three stakes races – two divisions of the Stallion Stakes Series and Ticonderoga – and placed in two more, including the Grade 3 Boiling Springs at Monmouth. Her record now stands at 9-3-1 from 18 career starts and she has earned a whopping $713,310
Bred by Berkshire Stud in partnership with John Meriwether’s Waterville Lake Stables Limited, LLC, Hessonite was purchased by William Punk, Jr. as a 2009 Keeneland September yearling for $27,000.
Hessonite’s dam Lakab is a winning daughter of Manila with three siblings who won at the Grade/Group 2 and 3 levels. Lakab has produced eight winners, including stakes performers Roanoke (Aus), by Danehill ($106,274) and European Rose, by Nureyev ($67,860). Her most recent foal is a New York-bred three-year-old filly by Johannesburg named Olympic Bride, who has started once in Brazil.
