Schoenthal: Elevated Vision “one who keeps you dreaming”
Elevated Vision won an allowance at Laurel Park to go two-for-two in her career. Photo by Jim McCue, Maryland Jockey Club.
by Frank Vespe
Elevated Vision is bred to be a good horse, and Sunday at Laurel Park, she took another step in the direction of becoming one.
The three-year-old Great Notion filly, trained by Phil Schoenthal for D Hatman Thoroughbreds and his own Kingdom Bloodstock, scored a determined neck victory in the day’s second race, an allowance/optional claiming event, and now owns two wins from two starts.
“We ran against who showed up, and we came out on top, and I’m happy for it,” Schoenthal said after his charge’s win in a compact, four-horse field. Elevated Vision went off the 7-5 second choice, with New York shipper Danyelli the 7-10 favorite. Danyelli finished second.
Elevated Vision is out of the Polish Numbers mare Sparkling Number and was bred in Maryland by Sycamore Hall Thoroughbreds. She is a half-sister to the Pennsylvania-bred Illuminant, a Grade 1 winner on the turf, as well as Jeezum Jim, a horse known for preferring a route of ground.
“We think her future is going to be two turns, and we think her future might be on the grass,” Schoenthal said.
Maybe, but there’s plenty to like about her present.
Today, under rider Carlos Quinones — whom Schoenthal called “the most under-appreciated rider in Maryland” — Elevated Vision broke alertly to press the pace of Charles Town shipper Yes I Dance, the longest shot on the board at 10-1. Those two whipped through an opening quarter-mile in 22.89 seconds, with just a half-length separating them.
Elevated Vision moved to even terms entering the lane, took the lead leaving the three-sixteenths, and cleared late before having to fend off the belated rally of the favorite, Danyelli.
Running time for the 5 1/2 furlongs over a fast main track was 1:04.88. Elevated Vision paid $4.80 to win and topped a one-dollar exacta worth $5.40.
Elevated Vision is now two-for-two in her brief career, with purse earnings of $55,575. Looking forward — with a speedy sprinter who figures to stretch out, and to like the turf — Schoenthal figures he has plenty of options.
One of them, he said, might involve a trip to Keeneland.
“We do have stalls at Keeneland for the spring meet. I’m going down there with some of the better horses in the barn, and I think she might be in that contingent,” he explained. “If she looks like she fits down there, they’ve got the Beaumont going seven-eighths on the dirt or, you know, they’ve got a race going long on the grass (the Grade 2 Appalachian at one mile for sophomore fillies). You might just take a shot at that.”
With her breeding, graded black type could have major value — perhaps even moreso if it comes from a place like Keeneland.
Though that remains in the future — and depends in large measure how she comes out of today’s race and how this race looks in retrospect — Schoenthal is more than happy with where his charge is, seeing it as something of a fulfillment of what they’d seen around the barn from the get-go.
“We thought she was a good horse all along, just breezing with everything in the barn and doing it so easily,” he said. “She gave us the kind of chills that gave you a reason to get out of the bed in the morning and come to the barn.
“These are the ones that keep you dreaming.”
