Sometimes clichés come to life. Sometimes it’s not how you start but how you finish.
After getting a poor jump out of the gate, Irish import Pipsy personified another cliché—making a good first impression—by rallying and winning her North American debut, the Soaring Softly Stakes (G3T) at the Belmont at the Big A meet May 12.
“That’s not how we had it drawn up at all,” said trainer William Walden. “We had talked to the gate crew and they did what we asked — we asked them to keep their hands off her in there. There was a lot of commotion left and right of her and she was one of the first to load and got a little fractious in there.”
That commotion rattled the $928,489 purchase at the 2023 Tattersalls December Mare Sale by Woodford Thoroughbreds, leading to her break resembling strides taken in slow motion. And in a six-furlong race, every moment of trouble becomes twice as difficult to overcome.
Despite falling off the lead by more than 10 lengths, jockey Flavien Prat settled the 3-year-old daughter of Kodiac , moving her along the rail to save ground.
Walden joked afterward that his initial reaction after the slow start was that it would be a long flight back to Kentucky.
Even as the field turned down the stretch, Pipsy’s chances looked bleak, sitting ninth of 10. But Prat read the filly correctly and took her six wide into the stretch where she displayed the turn of foot that should come along with a price tag such as hers.
Taking the lead at the sixteenth pole, Pipsy held off countrymate Kairyu by half a length in 1:09.41.
“We went to Plan B,” said Prat. “I gave her a chance to see if she would get underneath me and she sure did. When I tipped her out, she made a great move.”
While not an ideal trip, Walden sees plenty of potential.
“Obviously, we’ve got some work to do at the gate, but our confidence in her is pretty high right now. She came home with an electric turn of foot. Flavien gave her a great ride,” he said.
A $2 win ticket paid $8.70. Amidst Waves finished third. The race featured fractions of :22.42, :45.40, and :57.42
Bred by Noel Finegan, Pipsy is now 3-1-0 from four starts with earnings of $141,684. The Soaring Softly marked her 2024 debut.
“We’ll see how she comes out of this one and look at our options,” said Walden “I wouldn’t be afraid to stretch her out to a mile, especially after the way she did it today. She would definitely be forwardly placed at a mile, but we’ll see how she comes out of it and go from there.”
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