Future Star Watch – Agave Kiss

12/1/2011 6:04 PM

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People often tell me that I get too excited about the first race or two from certain horses. I write about them as future stars, and truth be told some of them don’t pan out. I understand this and yet I continue to write about them. Why? Because every once in a while there is a performance so eye-catching that it puts a big smile on the face of this guy, who has seen thousands upon thousands of races over the last 40 years. These performances get me excited, which is the very reason I write about racing in the first place. Hopefully trumpeting the potential of these types of horses will get you excited as well. After watching today’s performance by Agave Kiss at Aqueduct ... I am officially excited.

You may remember Agave Kiss from her smashing debut on Belmont's New York Showcase Day, when she tallied an overpowering 6 ¼ length wire-to-wire victory against New York-bred maidens on October 22. Earning a 90 Beyer speed figure while running 1:09 3/5 made Agave Kiss a must watch for whenever her second race would come … today was the day.

Owned by Flying Zee Stables, Agave Kiss scored a scintillating 10 ½ length victory over a field of allowance fillies today, but that only tells a small part of the story. Sent off as prohibitive 1-4 favorite against a field of five other statebred, juvenile allowance fillies, Agave Kiss went right to the lead of the six furlong affair and cruised through a :23.18 opening quarter and a :46.41 half. Things really got interesting from there as the Rudy Rodriquez trained filly started lengthening her advantage with every stride. At the eighth pole she was already 12 lengths clear of the field and rider Ryan Curatolo had already looked over his shoulder twice to see just how far back the rest of the field was. There was no need for him to worry, and the pair would jog to the wire in as effortless fashion as you can get.

Agave Kiss is a chestnut daughter of Lion Heart out of Salty Romance, by Salt Lake, and was bred in New York by Nustar Breeding LLC. She is the third foal of her stakes winning, and graded stakes placed dam, and is the half-sister to the Johannesburg three-year-old colt, Luxury Appeal, who is already stakes placed in only four lifetime starts.

Her breeding suggests a great deal of speed, so the question of how far she wants to go will remain until she attempts to go farther, but after watching her first two races, I say the sky is the limit for this one.

Here is her debut performance, I will post video of today's race as soon as it is available: