Small Pebbles holds on to win Monday’s Shesastonecoldfox Stakes at Finger Lakes. SV Photography
Most of the pre-race conversation leading into Monday’s Shesastonecoldfox Stakes at Finger Lakes centered on 1-2 favorite Warsaichi, who came in off back-to-back open-length scores including a romp in the Lady Finger Stakes Sept. 26 and faced just four opponents.
Small Pebbles didn’t listen to the chatter.
Making her first start in nine weeks – for circumstances somewhat beyond her control – the daughter of Bustin Stones broke a step slow from the inside but found a Quarter Horse gear for jockey Nazario Alvarado, ran by Warsaichi and led by 2 lengths after a furlong. The leader covered the opening quarter-mile in :22.38 and had everyone else playing catch-up from there. Isabel Luvs Gold and Warsaichi tried to challenge on the turn, but couldn’t keep up once Small Pebbles turned for home after a half-mile in :47.14. She held off the late-running Waitwaitdonttellme to win by a half-length after 6 furlongs in 1:15.13.
Owned and bred by Bill Hart, the 2-year-old filly won her debut over Warsaichi Aug. 22 but didn’t run again until Monday. Trainer Linda Dixon wanted to go in the $125,000 Joseph A. Gimma Stakes for New York-breds at Aqueduct Sept. 23. Small Pebbles didn’t share the same travel plan.
“That didn’t work out,” said Dixon. “She’s not a real good shipper and she wouldn’t get on the trailer. I was in New York with another horse, and I know her a little better than the grooms do so she might have loaded for me. Nobody’s fault, but we had to scratch that.”
Not nominated for the Lady Finger at Finger Lakes, Small Pebbles watched Warsaichi dominate that $97,725 restricted stakes and waited for Monday. Worth $29,900, the Shesastonecoldfox turned into her second win in as many starts as Small Pebbles paid $12.60 as the 5-1 third choicer. Dixon recognized the bay filly’s quality from the outset and was confident going into Monday’s race.
“She’s got some gas,” the trainer said. “I didn’t like the post position at all, but I figured if she got out there I didn’t think they’d catch her. She’s always been like that. She’s a good girl, she just doesn’t like loading in a horse trailer.”
Out of the Fusaichi Pegasus mare Bright Line, Small Pebbles pushed her earnings to $37,200 from the two starts. A foal of 2004, Bright Line won once in five starts for owner/breeder G. Watts Humphrey and has produced six winners. Her dam Clear Mandate won three Grade 1 stakes for Humphrey and trainer Rusty Arnold, and produced (among others) Grade 1 winner Strong Mandate and graded winner Newfoundland.
Sandee Schultz purchased Bright Line for $7,000 at Keeneland November in 2017 and ultimately gave her to Hart with the instructions to “breed her to good stallions.” Hart has seven mares at his 80-acre Winding Hills Farm in East Greenbush, and called Small Pebbles a runner from the beginning.
“She was a little on the nervous side, a little jerky and flighty, but always running in the pack,” he said. “She loved to run. Today was a lot of fun. I’ve never had an undefeated 2-year-old before.”
Bright Line produced a Cloud Computing filly, who sold for $15,000 at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga sale as a weanling, in 2021, and had a Preservationist colt for Hart this year. The mare was bred to Good Samaritan for 2023.
