SV Photography
By Sarah Mace
Chester and Mary Broman’s homebred Rush On By, a bay daughter of New York sire Alpha (Sequel New York), drove her record to a perfect two-for-two at Finger Lakes on Monday when she scored a frontrunning victory in the sixth running of the featured $50,000 Shesastonecoldfox Stakes, a 6-furlong sprint for New York-bred 2-year old fillies.
After attracting five entrants, the field of the Shesastonecoldfox was first winnowed down to four with the early scratch of Spin a Yarn, Rush On By’s uncoupled stablemate. Then, when the gates opened, the group was for all intents and purposes winnowed down by yet one more. Thea’s Theme at the rail (2-1) had an absolutely disastrous start, when she stumbled badly, went nearly down to her knees and almost dropped jockey Luis Colon. Even though she went on with the race, the unlucky filly never had the opportunity to get involved in any meaningful way.
Narrow 6-5 favorite Rush On By, by contrast, got of the gate running and quickly opened up two lengths on Peripherique (13-1) and Single Verse (7-5), who ran second in the Lady Finger Stakes to My Italian Rabbi.
Rush On By cruised unchallenged through splits 23.15 and 46.92. When Peripherique dropped out the chase, the contest evolved into a match race between her and Single Verse.
Rush On By preserved a one-length cushion for the length of the stretch under jockey Oscar Gomez, but a relentless Single Verse never took the pressure off. Ultimately Single Verse could only slightly erode the leader’s advantage and Rush On By went on to win by three-quarters of a length in a final time of 1:12.63.
Trained by Christopher Progno, Rush On By earned the opportunity to dive straight into stakes company when she turned heads in her Finger Lakes debut just 13 days ago. Drawn at the rail in a field of seven to go 5 1/2 furlongs, she wired the group by 13 lengths in 1:05.80, for which she earned a strong 67 Beyer. She has now earned $45,900 from two winning efforts.
Rush On By, who has two winning siblings from two to race, is the third foal out of Hout Bay a stakes-placed runner bred in Kentucky and purchased by Chester and Mary Broman for $16,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. She changed hands again in 2018 when Don Gibb picked her up for $5,000 at the Fasig-Tipton fall mixed sale in Saratoga.
Hout Bay’s leading earner to date is her first foal No Deal, a filly by Special Rate trained by Phil Serpe, whose bankroll sits at $234,026. She currently has a yearling colt by Bustin Stones and a weanling full-brother to Rush On by. She was bred this year to Exaggerator.
The Shesastonecoldfox Stakes, which is the final race on the 2019 Finger Lakes Stakes calendar, is named for the champion New York-bred juvenile filly of 2001 after she won of the Lady Finger Stakes, New York Breeders’ Futurity and Joseph A. Gimma Stakes. Langpap Stables’ Dennis Petrisak, co-owner of Shesastonecoldfox and co-breeder with Deborah Petrisak, presented the trophy.
