Lady Sabelia was a clear winner in today’s Willa on the Move Stakes. Photo by Laurie Asseo.
From a Maryland Jockey Club release
Mrs. Frank P. Wright’s Grade 2 winner Lady Sabelia added the $100,000 Willa On the Move to her resume Saturday with a 1 3/4-length score over Disco Chick while covering six furlongs in 1:10.17.
It was Lady Sabelia’s 10th career victory and seventh at Laurel. The 5-year-old mare, by Majestic Warrior, has now earned $665,465 for Wright. Trained by Robin Graham and ridden by Horacio Karamanos, Lady Sabelia raced third behind a :22.62 opening quarter set by longshot Dallas Cowgirl before moving to the lead with a three-wide move around the turn.
“Around the turn she wanted to go and I didn’t want to stop her,” Karamanos said.
Lady Sabelia won the Fritchie (G2) in February before finishing off the board at Keeneland in the Madison (G1) in April. The mare came back from a six-month layoff Nov. 1 to win the Pumpkin Pie at Belmont by 7 1/2 lengths.
“She’s a pleasure to train. She’s wonderful,” Graham said. “She seems to be coming back great, wonderful.”
Vorticity Gritty in Marylander Win
Matthew Schera’s Vorticity, purchased for $220,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale in May, ran down Take of E Dubai above the eighth pole and then held off Never Gone South to win the $100,000 Marylander by three-quarters of a length.
Vorticity, a son of Distorted Humor trained by James Lawrence and ridden by Victor Carrasco, covered the seven furlongs in 1:24.63. Favored Never Gone South was second and Runningfromthefeds third.
Breaking from post two, Vorticity raced second inside Tale of E Dubai past an opening quarter in :23.15 and a half in :46.44. Carrasco took back off the leader entering the turn and then came around Tale of E Dubai to take the lead. Vorticity then held off Never Gone South, who came into the Marylander off a second-place finish in the James F Lewis.
The Marylander was Vorticity’s third career start. The colt finished third in his racing debut Oct. 10 at Laurel before breaking his maiden at Aqueduct Nov. 8.
“First time out we were using the race as an education,” Lawrence said. “I told (Schera) not to expect to win. He’s good enough to win, but we wanted to see a good effort first time out. Then after that pretty sharp maiden race we started looking at a campaign.”
Vorticity returned $6.
