Runaway Rumour, a half sister to New York-bred championship finalist Myhartblongstodady, adds gives owner and breeder Lawrence Goichman another stakes winner out of Elusive Rumour. Elsa Lorieul/NYRA Photo.
By Tom Law
Lawrence Goichman keeps it simple with his small New York-based breeding operation.
“I’ve been in the business since 1979 and right now I’ve got 11 mares,” Goichman said last summer at Saratoga. “Generally, we keep the fillies and sell the colts. If we think we’ve got a filly coming, we bring her up here so she can be part of this program. It’s been great.”
The filly Goichman referred to that day was Myhartblongstodady, winner of the Yaddo Stakes on Saratoga Showcase Day, and Saturday at Belmont Park her younger 3-year-old half sister Runaway Rumour ran her record to 3-for-3 with a victory against open company in the $100,000 Wild Applause Stakes.
The daughter of second-crop sire Flintshire won by a half-length over 6-5 favorite Minuan under Luis Cardenas, who picked up the mount for trainer Jorge Abreu after Jose Lezcano took off his later mounts Saturday following a mishap in the post parade before the second race.
Sent off at 13-1 in the field of eight, Runaway Rumour raced seventh through the opening half-mile while Bye Bye and Joel Rosario set the pace in :22.79 and :47.28 over the firm Widener Turf Course. They remained in seventh through 6 furlongs in 1:11.69 while making a run on the outside with Bye Bye clinging to a narrow lead over Lovestruck, Sussex Garden and Minuan.
“[Abreu] worked out the plan with me and we both agreed to just let her run her race,” Cardenas said. “She likes to be able to run horses down and that’s what she did. She loves doing that and I love her, too. We popped out of the gate and let the speed go.”
Runaway Rumour continued her run through the lane, took the lead inside the eighth pole and edged clear while Minuan closed to finish second. Nevisian Sunrise finished a half-length back in third, with Sussex Garden fourth. Runaway Rumour won in 1:34.25.
“I was a little concerned about the jockey change because I had never rode Luis in that type of race before, but he gave me so much confidence when I was giving him instructions,” Abreu said. “He told me he was looking at the replays and I knew it going to be OK. I told him, ‘whatever you do, do not go on the inside.’
“He broke sharp and tucked her in behind horses and he kept her in the clear. She likes to run free on the outside. When I saw at the five-sixteenths pole that she was picking up momentum, I had a pretty good feeling about her.”
Runaway Rumour improved to 3-for-3 with the Wild Applause victory, worth $55,000 to pad her earnings to $140,250. Foaled at Vivien Malloy’s Edition Farm in Hyde Park, she’s the third foal out of the Elusive Quality mare Elusive Rumour, third in the 2012 Yaddo Stakes and 2013 You Go West Girl Stakes and Mount Vernon Stakes for Goichman.
Elusive Rumour, who earned $140,050 during her career, is the dam of multiple stakes winner and 2020 champion New York-bred female turf horse finalist Myhartblongstodady (Scat Daddy) and three-time winner and $137,500-earner Scuttlebuzz (The Factor). Those New York-breds are also half siblings to the 2-year-old More Than Ready colt Ripe for Mischief, purchased at the OBS April sale by Bond Racing Stable for $75,000.
Myhartblongstodady, who races for Goichman and Abreu, strung together a three-race win streak in late 2019 and into the summer of 2020 capped by the Yaddo Stakes at Saratoga and Ticonderoga Stakes at Belmont. She finished off the board in two graded stakes this season and third in the Plenty of Grace Stakes at Aqueduct in April. Scuttlebuzz is 2-for-3 in 2021, including a victory in a 6-furlong state-bred allowance on the grass June 18 at Belmont.
Runaway Rumour didn’t make her debut until May 9 in a 6-furlong state-bred maiden at Belmont, which she won by 1 3/4 lengths after closing from last of 12 early. She added an allowance victory at 1 mile on the grass in the race immediately following the June 5 Belmont Stakes.
Abreu said she could try graded company next, in the $150,000 Lake George Stakes July 23 at Saratoga Race Course.
“Depending on how she comes out of the race, we’ll look at the Lake George at Saratoga,” he said. “I’d say a mile to a mile and a sixteenth is good for her. I don’t want to stretch her out to a mile and an eighth or a mile and quarter. Time will tell.”
