Sharp Starr follows up big allowance score with victory in Grade 3 Go For Wand at Aqueduct. Joe Labozzetta/NYRA Photo.
By Tom Law
Horacio DePaz walked down the shedrow of his barn inside Clare Court this past summer at Saratoga, stopped at the stall of a fairly recent maiden winner and provided a straight assessment of the filly peering out.
“She’s honest,” DePaz said of Sharp Starr, a homebred daughter of Munnings he trains for Barry Schwartz.
Sharp Starr showed how honest in her next start, about a month later, when she finished a close third in the Fleet Indian Stakes on Saratoga Showcase Day. She did again two months later, blasting an allowance field at Aqueduct and went another step further Saturday at the Big A with a determined win over older foes in the Grade 3 Go For Wand Handicap.
Sharp Starr became the second New York-bred to win a graded stakes on the Cigar Mile Day card at Aqueduct, joining Grade 2 Remsen winner Brooklyn Strong.
“She definitely likes the track, but I think she likes the one-turn mile a bit better,” DePaz said after Sharp Starr won by a neck over Portal Creek. “I was happy she could repeat that last effort.”
Sharp Starr and jockey Jose Ortiz won the 1-mile Go For Wand in 1:36.75 to improve to 3-for-9 with two seconds and two thirds for DePaz and Schwartz, who bred the filly in the name of his Stonewall Farm. Out of the A.P. Indy mare Mindy Gold, Sharp Starr is a half sister to the multiple stakes-placed Papa Shot and winners Speke and Paved With Gold.
Sent off as the narrow 8-5 second choice in the field of six, Sharp Starr and Ortiz tracked the loose-running Portal Creek up the backstretch and around the far turn through solid splits of :23.26, :46.72 and 1:11.52. They were never more than 1 1/2 lengths back and came wide into the lane with a run at the leader.
Sharp Starr and Portal Creek battled through the stretch with the former edging clear just before the wire. They first two were 12 lengths clear of favored Nonna Madeline in third, with Stand for the Flag fourth.
Ortiz rode Sharp Starr in three races this summer, including her allowance runner-up at Saratoga July 22 and in her third in the Fleet Indian. She finished a non-threatening seventh at 39-1 in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan before her 15 ¾-length victory in the cutback to 1 mile Nov. 7.
“They were running her two turns and she was breaking a little slow,” Ortiz said. “Last time, when we brought her back to a one-turn mile, she broke well and that suited her better. They stuck with that racing style today. She broke sharp. She was there for me every time I asked her.”
DePaz trains about 30 horses and credited the support from Schwartz for helping keep his operation rolling. He’s won 16 races and the earners of just under $800,000 in 2020.
“The owner has good horses and has been a big supporter of mine,” DePaz said. “He bred this filly and does a good job.”
