Hybrid Eclipse pulled away strongly through the Laurel Park stretch to score her first stakes victory in the $100,000 Caesar’s Wish S. on July 2.
Third in the June 8 Obeah S. at Delaware Park, the 4-year-old Paynter filly is now 5-2-2 in 14 starts and has earned $267,324 for Magic Oaks.
Hybrid Eclipse broke well in the one-turn mile race, putting herself second behind The Grass Is Blue, who raced well out in the middle of the track. Hybrid Eclipse took the lead for good shortly after going a quarter-mile. She increased her advantage to a length at the top of the stretch, then bound clear in the final furlong to win by 3 ¾-lengths in 1:37.13 on a fast main track.
“To be honest, I wasn’t going to break forward. If they let me go in front, I’d take the lead. If somebody wanted to go, I’d settle in behind,” jockey Jevian Toledo said. “I broke and nobody wanted to go. I went and [The Grass Is Blue] kind of stayed away from me and never really put on pressure, so that kind of worked out really good.”
Bred in Kentucky by Alex Venneri Racing LLC, Hybrid Eclipse hails from the family of millionaire and five-time Grade 1 winner Twice the Vice.
Hybrid Eclipse is one of nine stakes horses this year by Paynter, a group that includes the aforementioned Obeah S. winner Miss Leslie, who has six lifetime stakes victories.
