Sweet Montreal takes field all the way to win Friday’s Joseph A. Gimma at Aqueduct. Coglianese Photo/Susie Raisher.
Sweet Montreal blew up the tote board when she won her debut at 42-1 last month at Saratoga Race Course, and pulled another upset Friday with an 11-1 score in the $150,000 Joseph A. Gimma for 2-year-old New York-bred fillies at Aqueduct.
Owned by DiRico Racing and Breeding, the 2-year-old daughter of Instagrand went to the front from the start under Stewart Elliott and stayed there throughout the 6-furlong turf stakes. Sweet Montreal won by 3 1/4 lengths over Arinata with Grazie third and Sacred Goddess fourth in the field of eight.
Elliott and trainer Jim Ryerson talked tactics for the Gimma, a former 2-year-old dirt stakes, before the race and came up with a plan.
“There’s a little speed in here,” Elliott said.
“Well, you be aggressive and if you want to adjust to that, that’s fine,” Ryerson said.
Ryerson said he thought Sweet Montreal, a winner going 5 ½ furlongs on the turf August 6 at Saratoga, would show speed and she did.
“She’s always been quick,” Ryerson said after the race. “Some of her works leading up to her first start were pedestrian, but it was more the company she was keeping in the morning; it wasn’t her. She was waiting on everybody in those works. She’s fast. She’s pretty fast.”
Sweet Montreal showed how fast from the break. She took the lead and zipped through the opening quarter-mile in :22.60, a length in front of Vernon Valley, Trading Trouble and Charlottesuniverse.
“I didn’t really think she’d clear them like that but when she did, and I know he’s not riding her to do that, then I’m feeling pretty good,” Ryerson said.
Sweet Montreal continued from there, clicking past the half in :45.60, still a length in front of Vernon Valley. She spurted away in the stretch, opened up by 2 lengths in midstretch and past 5 furlongs in :57.06 and drew off from there. She won in 1:08.73. Arinata closed from second, overcoming some traffic at the top of the stretch to finish a neck in front of Grazie.
“The original plan was to sit off the speed, but she broke so well – I thought there was quite a bit of speed in the race, but it worked out great,” Elliott said. “She broke good, did it in hand and she’s very, very classy. It worked out. She was doing it easy, for her anyways, she was doing it smooth. She felt great. She was giving me 110 percent the whole way, so that’s all we can ask for.”
Sweet Montreal picked up $82,500 for the win, boosting her bankroll to $132,000 for her two starts.
Bred by Torie Gladwell and foaled at Stonegate Stables in Fort Edward, Sweet Montreal sold to Joseph DiRico out of the Top Line Sales consignment for $120,000 at this year’s OBS March sale.
Sweet Montreal is the ninth foal out of the Rockport Harbor mare Passeporta, who is the dam of the stakes-placed $187,888-earning New York-bred Solomini filly Sohana and three other winners. Passeporta is also the dam of a yearling filly by Solomini and a weanling filly by Drain the Clock, both bred by Gladwell in New York.
