NYRA/Adam Coglianese
by Sarah Mace
In an unusual twist, two full sisters bred by Dr. James Randall Mcglinn, owned by Bloodlines Racing Partnerships and trained by Bruce Levine, set an exclamation point on the Empire Showcase Day races Saturday by finishing one-two in the day’s finale, the $200,000 Ticonderoga for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf. Five-year old Invading Humor crossed the wire first at odds of 29-1, triggering a pick six carryover, while and four-year-old Distorted Beauty won a photo for second in a blanket finish at 7-1 odds. Both are sired by Invasor (ARG)
Drawn in post seven in the full field of 12 and slated to face odds-on favorite Discreet Marq, Invading Humor wasted no time in getting to the lead under jockey Jose Lezcano, opening up a 1 1/2-length lead through a first quarter-mile in 23.83 and maintaining a comfortable one-length margin along the backstretch and rounding the far turn, attended throughout by Mah Jong Maddnes.
Working her way out into the two path in the turn, she began to be asked for more. Spinning four wide into the stretch she dug in well and held her own against a gang of would-be closers to score a 1 3/4-length victory.
The next four across the finish line were separated by a head, a neck and a neck, with Distorted Beauty, who closed from mid-pack, taking second, Neck of the Moon finishing third, Swear by It in fourth and Mah Jong Maddnes in fifth. After a mile in 1:34.01, the final time for 1 1/16 miles over the firm going was 1:40.09. Discreet Marq faded to eleventh after racing near the pace until mid-stretch. [VIDEO]
Lezcano said, “She broke good. Bruce told me to put her right on the lead, and there’s not too much to say. She kept on going and never stopped.”
“When Discreet Marq made a move at the quarter-pole, I got a little worried about Mah Johng Maddnes, I though she was going to win it but [Invading Humor] ran great,” commented Levine. “We had her entered in the Hettinger but we had to scratch her the morning of the race. She got hurt in her stall, so it wasn’t by design that she had so much time off. I’ve never done that [run 1-2 with full sisters]. I wonder if that’s ever been done before.”
NYRA/Adam Coglianese
Invading Humor has now won three of the major turf stakes for New York-bred fillies and mares, having taken the Mount Vernon earlier this year and John Hettinger in 2014, but was let go at long odds following two sub-par performances following the Mount Vernon in the open Perfect Sting and Yaddo Stakes. Overall, from eight wins, a second and third in 18 starts, she has earned $500,944. Her younger sister is multiple stakes-placed with five wins and $353,762 in earnings.
The dam of the two Invasor fillies, both foaled at Sickle Pond Farm in Stillwater, is Very Funny, a placed runner who originally sold for $400,000 at the 2006 Adena Springs sale of 2-year-olds. She was purchased by Dr. Mcglinn at the 2009 Keeneland January sale for $16,000. Invading Humor and Distorted Beauty are her only two foals to start, but she currently has three foals by Freud on the ground: a juvenile filly named Freudian Humor, an unnamed yearling filly and a weanling colt. Very Funny was bred in 2015 to Into Mischief.
