NEWS: RACING

Sadie Lady fends off rival again to win Correction

Saturday, March 13th, 2021

Sadie Lady (inside) fends off Call On Mischief for first stakes victory in Saturday’s Correction at Aqueduct. Chelsea Durand/NYRA Photo.

By Tom Law

Sadie Lady and Call On Mischief squared off a week before Christmas at Aqueduct and finished 2 ½ lengths apart, with the former in front for her fourth victory of 2020.

The two tangled again Saturday at Aqueduct and while the margin shrunk to a head the outcome stayed the same with the New York-bred Sadie Lady earning her first blacktype with a victory in the $100,000 Correction Stakes.

Sadie Lady, sent to the front from the start and there at the end while two rivals made unsuccessful runs at the lead, won the 6-furlong stakes in 1:11.98. Kansas Kis finished third with 6-5 favorite Amuse fourth of six.

Off since the Dec. 18 victory to end her 4-year-old campaign, Sadie Lady also became the latest stakes winner for top New York sire Freud. The veteran son of Storm Cat, who stands for $5,000 at Sequel Stallions New York in Hudson, came into the day with 54 blacktype winners and the earners of more than $61 million.

Bred by JMJ Racing Stables LLC and out of the unraced Read The Footnotes mare Zucca, Sadie Lady improved to 7-for-18 with $321,232 in earnings for owner Dennis Narlinger. Campaigned throughout her career by Narlinger, Sadie Lady finished fifth in her most recent stakes appearance in the Staten Island division of the New York Stallion Series. She went to the lead that day and didn’t last, but did Dec. 18 and again in the Correction.

“This filly gets very brave on the front,” said winning trainer Rob Atras, who won four races Saturday at Aqueduct. “She gets very strong and courageous on the front end. She showed that today.”

Atras won the opener with the 3-year-old Kantharos gelding Saint Selby in his debut in a New York-bred maiden special weight and claiming events with Heavy Roller and Storm Advisory.

“Going into today, I knew I had some live shots and all the horses are training very well,” Atras said. “So many things have to go right to win one race, never mind four, so I’m really grateful that it came together today.

“Anytime you win a race it’s special, especially in New York. It’s the mecca of racing and a tough place to win races.”

Sadie Lady, the latest stakes winner for leading New York sire Freud. Joe Labozzetta/NYRA Photo.

Atras took over Sadie Lady’s training last fall after she started her career with the Fair Hill-based Arnaud Delacour. She won her debut in September of her 2-year-old campaign to earn starts in back-to-back New York-bred stakes – the Maid of the Mist on Empire Showcase Day at Belmont Park and the Key Cents at Aqueduct. Off the board in both of those tries, Sadie Lady banged around the allowance, optional and claiming ranks in 2019 and most of 2020.

Sadie Lady won three in a row last winter in New York before the pandemic shut down racing for a period – victories in a $35,000 claimer, state-bred optional and open allowance. She returned in June and made three starts without success until the Dec. 18 victory.

Franco employed similar tactics in the Correction that Kendrick Carmouche, riding Amuse this time, used in the optional. Benefitting from the slow start of expected pace threat Awesome Debate, Sadie Lady ran on the lead along through the opening quarter-mile of :23.12 just ahead of Amuse and Kansas Kis with Call On Mischief fourth.

Sadie Lady stayed on through a similar second quarter, hitting the half-mile mark in :46.62 and a length in front of Call On Mischief to her outside. Kansas Kis tried to come between the top two in the lane but couldn’t find a seam and Sadie Lady, while drifting just a bit, stayed on in deep stretch for the win.

“I was happy with the break because I knew the way she likes to run,” Franco said. “After that, I just needed to see where she took me and she got it done. She’s a great filly when she’s in front and that’s what we did. I thought (Awesome Debate) would come out of there running, but I don’t know what happened. I was in front so I just tried to slow the pace down a little bit.”

Nik Juarez, aboard Call On Mischief, claimed foul against the winner and stewards reviewed the stretch run but did not make a change.

Foaled at Sequel New York in Hudson, Sadie Lady is the second foal out of Zucca, a 10-year-old full sister to stakes winner Out Of Respect co-bred by JMJ Racing Stables and Sequel Thoroughbreds LLC. She was offered but did not sell on a $1,000 bid at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall mixed sale, the same year she produced Sadie Lady.

Zucca did not produced another foal until 2019 when she delivered a Florida-bred colt by Tapiture named Life Is Great. Zucca is also the dam of a yearling colt bred by EVS Corp. by Race Day foaled in New York Feb. 23, 2020, and was bred back to Freud last season.

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