Secret Love improves to 2-for-3 with upset victory in Franklin Square. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.
By Melissa Bauer-Herzog
Nedlaw Stable’s and Tobey Morton’s Secret Love took her record to two wins in three starts Saturday with an easy upset win in the $100,000 Franklin Square Stakes at Aqueduct.
Secret Love, a $270,000 OBS July 2-year-old sale graduate, led home a 1-3 finish for her sire Not This Time and punished bettors who disregarded her as the longest shot on the board in the 6 1/2-furlong stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies. Pablo Morales rode the 13-1 upsetter in the field of five for trainer John Kimmel, but it wasn’t a cakewalk to get to this target.
Secret Love stormed home to win on debut by 6 1/4 lengths late September at Belmont Park but a setback forced her to sit out all the fall races. Returning in an allowance-optional claimer race in late December at Aqueduct, she finished second to Rossa Veloce in a defeat she would avenge in the Franklin Square.
“The filly broke her maiden very impressively but she lost a shoe and grabbed her quarter and that’s why she missed the next 90 days,” Kimmel said. “We came back and ran her in an ‘a-other-than’ off a long layoff and she needed that race. She had a couple breezes after that race and was breezing extremely well and outworking [stakes-placed] Frost Me.”
Secret Love looked ready to run in the Franklin Square and applied pressure on her rival Rossa Veloce quickly after they broke from the gate. Morales looked comfortable on his mount throughout as she galloped through early fractions of :22.76 and :46.68. The middle of the race looked very familiar to all who watched the December allowance with Secret Love shadowing Rossa Veloce just as she’d done before.
Drawing even with the leader as they left the turn, Morales asked her to go by and she obliged with a little more than a furlong to run. Secret Love pulled away to win by 1 1/2 lengths in a time of 1:19.86 with 3-5 favorite Laobanonaprayer and 8-5 second choice Vacay passing the pacesetter late to finish second and third.
“She came to run,” Morales said. “They gave me a lot of confidence in her. They told me to have her forwardly placed because they thought she was going to run big. I pretty much followed instructions and came out of there running. Once [Rossa Veloce] made the lead, I just sat second the whole way around there. She gave me a nice kick down the lane and I thought it was good enough to win and she sure did.”
With a stakes win under her belt, Secret Love is set to take on stablemate Frost Me in more than just a breeze. Kimmel indicated that the Maddie May Feb. 20 is a likely target for both fillies.
Secret Love was co-bred by Sequel Stallions NY and Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings and is a granddaughter of three-time Group 1 winner Exotic Wood. The filly’s A.P. Indy dam was purchased by Sequel New York for $17,000 at the 2018 Keeneland January horses of all ages while carrying Secret Love.
A 15-year-old mare, Exotic Design has produced four winners from six to run and is a full sister to stakes winner and Grade 3-placed Key To Power. This has proved to be a productive family with Exotic Wood’s daughters and granddaughters producing six stakes performers.
Exotic Design’s New York-bred 2-year-old colt is by Sequel Stallions NY and Stonestreet Thoroughbreds’ Union Jackson with her yearling colt by that same stallion. The mating has proven popular for the partnership with Exotic Design back to foal to Union Jackson for her 2021 foal.
