Newly Minted, last year’s champion NY-bred 3-year-old filly, wins Thursday’s Union Avenue Stakes at Saratoga. NYRA Photo.
By Tom Law
Linda Rice leaned into this one.
Rice, the reigning and seven-time champion New York-bred trainer in the midst of another strong Saratoga meet, snapped, rooted and leaned into Newly Minted’s victory in Thursday’s $85,000 Union Avenue Stakes.
“She’s a barn favorite,” Rice said after Beach Haven Thoroughbreds’ 4-year-old daughter of Central Banker withstood a few late charges and a stewards inquiry to take the 7-furlong stakes for older New York-bred fillies and mares.
Newly Minted, making her first start since finishing second in the 1-mile Heavenly Prize Stakes in early March at Aqueduct, gave her trainer some anxious moments in the stretch. Watching on a small monitor on the first floor of the clubhouse in the empty Porch dining area, Rice stayed glued to the action while Newly Minted took over in the stretch, opened up and started to get a little tired inside the final furlong. That’s when Rice went to work, giving it the snap, “come on Jose,” snap, “come on Jose,” snap about a half-dozen times while Newly Minted managed to win by a neck over the late-running Mrs. Orb with 33-1 longshot Forever Changed another three quarters of a length back in third and Parx shipper Collegeville Girl a head behind that in fourth.
“I was,” Rice said when asked if she was concerned in deep stretch while Newly Minted hung on to win in 1:23.84. “I didn’t get quite as many workouts in her as I would have liked but she has a lot of raw talent and I was hoping that would carry her through.”
Then came the inquiry.
Newly Minted and jockey Jose Lezcano came out a few paths inside the sixteenth pole, causing Jose Ortiz and the backing up 6-5 favorite Ratajkowski to check. Stewards gave it a long look but made no change.
“I was concerned at first when I saw the head on up and the lines up, I was concerned,” Rice said. “I could see the filly was laboring, she was tired at the end of it. Jose told me, ‘look Linda I know she came over a little, she was tired but I was well in front of her.’ ”
Bred by Chester and Mary Broman, winners of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders’ breeder of the year honor the last four years, Newly Minted improve to 6-for-11 and boosted her earnings to $515,988 for John Sakkos’ and Ara Aprahamian’s Beach Haven Thoroughbreds. She’s the second foal out of the Broman’s homebred two-time winning Bernardini mare Newbie.
Newbie’s first foal, the Boys At Tosconova mare New Girl in Town, has won seven of 19 starts and earned $169,355 carrying the Broman’s colors. She won an allowance race at Saratoga last summer and has placed in four stakes in her career. Newbie is also the dam of a 3-year-old Carpe Diem filly Coco Cookies, unplaced in one start but on the work tab as recently as late June at Belmont Park; and the 2-year-old Speightstown filly Colonizer purchased by Rice as agent for $150,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga New York-bred yearling sale.
Newly Minted won five of eight starts last season to earn champion New York-bred 3-year-old filly honors. She won three stakes, including the Fleet Indian at Saratoga, and bounced back from a scary incident when she fell after the finish of the Empire Distaff with a second and a win in open-company allowance races to end 2019.
Newly Minted finished second in her two 2020 starts – the Biogio’s Rose Feb. 9 and Heavenly Prize March 8, both at Aqueduct.
“She’s been such a pleasure to have from when she started early in her 3-year-old year,” Rice said. “We were going for over a year straight. We had a few incidents, when she fell in the race at Belmont and it was frightening but she’s run quite well since.”
