Embellish the Lace turned back all her challengers to score an ultra-game victory in the historic Alabama S. (G1) Saturday at Saratoga.
The 3-year-old filly is the fourth graded stakes winner for Super Saver in his first two crops, the most any second-year stallion. He also is the only sophomore sire with multiple Grade 1 winners. He currently ranks fourth on the Second Crop Sire list with progeny earnings topping $2 million.
Embellish the Lace, making just her fifth lifetime start and first beyond a mile and a sixteenth, was well up to the grueling 1 ¼-miles of the Alabama. Facing a super group of fillies that included Grade 1 winners Curalina, Lovely Maria and Include Betty, Embellish the Lace was sent right to the front by Javier Castellano.
Carving out sensible fractions of :48 1/5 and 1:12 4/5, Embellish the Lace cut the corner turning from home and had a three length advantage in mid-stretch. I’m A Chatterbox made a late, non-threatening run as Embellish the Lace stopped the timer in 2:01.97.
“I always hoped of winning a race like that, and when it comes, it’s just so gratifying, so humbling, so magical,” trainer Tony Dutrow said of the Alabama, which has been run since 1872. “And special is a great word which sums up all that.”
“I didn’t expect her to be on the lead, but nobody went,” Castellano said. “We put up good numbers all the way, and it paid off. I thought there was more speed in the race but nobody wanted to go. I tried to rate a little bit the first turn, but nobody wanted to take it, so I took it. I knew they were coming, but the way she turned for home, I had so much confidence. When I asked her a little bit she took off. The one thing about her is she goes all day. She passed the wire and she galloped out strong.”
Embellish the Lace was bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm out of the Distant View mare Expanse, and was a $320,000 Keeneland September yearling sale purchase by owners Alex and Jo Ann Lieblong. A half-sister to Travers S. (G1) winner Afleet Express, Embellish the Lace has now banked $413,340
