CONGRATS filly Turbulent Descent took a giant step toward winning the prestigious Eclipse Award in her category after posting an emphatic 3 3/4-lens victory in the Grade 1 $250,000 Test Stakes (1400m) at Saratoga.
The Florida bred three-year-old boasts the awesome record of six wins and two seconds from her eight career starts including three at Grade 1 level with earnings of more than $820,000.
Her dazzling Saratoga triumph, in the early hours of Sunday morning our time, has her front and centre in the countdown to the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mares Sprint which will be run at Churchill Downs on November 4.
Punters were almost unanimous in their support for the Mike Puype trained Turbulent Descent ahead of her Test Stakes quest forcing her in to start 4/5 on at post time and the filly did the rest.
Jockey David Flores was content to watch the race unfold up front allowing the favourite to settle off the speed some 4 1/2-lens off the lead.
“I thought I was going to be a little bit further back, but the pace was not as fast as I thought it was going to be and that put me in the best spot,” Flores said. “So, I just waited; there was nobody to worry about and around the half mile I just pointed out and she started making a run. I just let her be herself.”
Turbulent Descent’s now customary turn of foot helped her to charge past her rivals surging clear to win the feature in electrifying order.
Trainer Puype was effusive in his praise in the wake of Turbulent Descent’s third major forecasting that it will not be her last.
“She’s just absolutely – there’s not enough you can say – it’s a breathtaking race,” he said. “She’ll take on any horse out there at this distance. It puts her right to the top of the division. She’s the favorite to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint.
“She put herself in a new financial category today,” Puype added, “and she’s in line to win an Eclipse Award.”
Bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Turbulent Descent is campaigned by a partnership that includes Blinkers On Racing Stable and improved to three wins and two seconds in five starts this season.
Winner of the 2010 Hollywood Starlet Stakes (G1) in a perfect season, she was a finalist for the 2010 Eclipse Award as champion two-year-old filly.
“She leaves Monday morning and we don’t have any plans [ahead of the Breeders’ Cup].” Pupye said on Saturday.
Turbulent Descent’s win is marks another significant milestone passed for her esteemed sire Congrats whose stocks continue to soar off the back of his Champion First Season Sire title achieved last season.
Congrats is scheduled to arrive at Vinery Stud on 24th where a full book of mares awaits.
“The most important thing a champion first season sire can is to have that crop train-on and we have seen through the likes of Turbulent Descent and a number of others that the Congrats progeny get up and going early but come back as three-year-olds,” says Vinery’s Adam White.
“Stallions who deliver a champion from their first crop like Congrats has are few and far between. For him to have done what he has so far is very exciting.”
