Winter Memories Ends Season in Keeneland's QE II

9/18/2011 3:13 PM  | horseracingnation.com
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2011 05 30: Winter Memories with Jose Lezcano win the Grade 3 Sands Point Stakes for 3 year olds fillies at 1 1/16 mile, Belmont Park. Trainer James J. Toner. Owner Phillips Racing Partnership It was a bright and lively Winter Memories and an emotionally drained but happy Jimmy Toner who received a stream of congratulatory visitors Sunday morning following the filly's dramatic last-to-first victory in the Grade 1, $250,000 Garden City.

"Watching it again, I still can't believe she got up and won," said the trainer. "I was thinking to myself, 'Oh, no, here we go again. Not again.' She doesn't make it easy, that's for sure. But she's fine, she's happy, she came back good. I was so wired I couldn't sleep last night. Hopefully today I'll catch up on my sleep. Maybe I'll get a nap in this afternoon."

Toner said the 3-year-old filly's attitude following her neck victory Saturday was markedly different than her behavior following her stunning loss when fourth in the Grade 2 Woodford Reserve Lake Placid at Saratoga Race Course, her lone defeat of 2011.

"Last night, walking back over here she was ready to attack everybody," he said. "She was very different than last time; the time before, she was mad after that race. She was aggressive yesterday, but not mad. She was showing her stuff. She ate up good last night and was bright this morning, as you can see. We're in good shape."

The phone calls and messages began right after the race, said Toner, and they all said the same thing.

"Everybody is saying, 'That was unbelievable,'" he said. "Trapped in behind horses with less than an eighth of a mile to go ... it wasn't the idea you were going, 'Come on, come on, come on, get up there' ... she gets loose, and she's there."

Exactly how fast the gray daughter of El Prado was going as she rocketed past the entire field in the final furlong remained unclear (other than it was really, really fast.)

"The last eighth was timed in 11 1/5 [seconds], so how fast did she go?" wondered Toner. "I don't know. I was trying to figure it out. Someone came by and said he thought it was 10 3/5. That's unheard of in a race - 10 and change [for the final eighth]. It's unbelievable, but she conceivably could have. She puts those ears back and she just goes. She's got a tremendous stride."

The difference between her loss to Hungry Island in the Woodford Reserve Lake Placid and her victory Saturday - her first in a Grade 1 - came down to one main factor, said Toner.

"She didn't have any punch in the Lake Placid," he said. "She has to get clear to have that punch. She was never clear. She was behind horses in the Lake Placid and then ducked down to the inside, where it was really soft. With that kind of going, you don't really get a chance to accelerate. Your stride shortens up and I think that had a lot to do with it. Yesterday, on firm ground, she could grab hold and accelerate and that's what she did."

Toner had high praise for winning jockey Javier Castellano, aboard Winter Memories for the first time in a race.

"Javier knew every horse in the race and what they were doing. Once [Alex] Solis went on with Hungry Island, he knew they were all gone, and that he could then swing her to the outside," said Toner. "He was aware of everything. For him to have that kind of confidence, to be able to sit on the horse for as long as he did and just wait, is amazing. He rode her as if she was the best horse in the race. He's breezed her twice, but he's been watching her. He said, 'I know what she can do.' I think that's why Javier is where he's at today. He's at the top of his game."

Winter Memories will likely have one more start this year, on October 15 at Keeneland Race Course, in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, a race won by her mother, Memories of Silver, 15 years ago.

"The plan is to have two breezes her, and then go to Keeneland," said Toner.


 

 

What the Nation is saying about Winter Memories Ends Season in Keeneland's QE II...

I totally disagree with the commentators at the end of the Garden City race where they said it was not the jockey's fault in the Lake Placid, and they were unwilling to give credit to Javier's handling of the Garden City race. Early on, Tom Durkin’s call was Winter Memories was 3 or 4 lengths from the front, then he noted she had lost a few positions. Javier deliberately slowed her down and dropped her toward the back of the pack...he wasn't going to make the same mistake getting her bottled up in mid-pack as Jose did. I think Javier did a masterful job of not panicking, taking her to the outside and then letting her talent take over. IMHO, Jose (Lezcano) could have done the exact same thing in the Lake Placid race, but instead he chose to keep her mid-pack and it allowed others to control her fate. I give total credit to Javier for this one. This is a jockey at the top of his game...he knows this horse. And he rewarded her with a hand-ride to the finish. That was just beautiful!
  • annmatt · I would also like to point out as further evidence that the ride by Javier was the result of a confident, disciplined rider who had studied his horse, and despite less than ideal conditions and having to navigate a little late around HI to the outside, he did not panic. A panicked rider would have been wielding the whip...Javier hardly laid a hand on her...he was the pilot, but she had the gas in the tank, and, once clear, he gave her a hand ride to the finish. That's why he's at the top of the sport and his profession, and that's why I think they picked him. He's cool under pressure. · 252 days ago ·
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Why isn't she going to the Breeders Cup? Keeneland? I know her dam raced in the QEII, but jeeez, this filly deserves to have a go at the Cup.
No Breeder's Cup?????
A great ride by Garrett Gomez and great effort on the part of Theysken's Theory in yesterday's G1 Garden City Stakes at Belmont. Winter Memories won that race on pure class, because the ride she got from Javier Castellano in the Garden City was about as bad as the ride she got from Jose Lezcano in the Lake Placid. I wish it had been Winter Memories instead of More Than Real that went Royal-Ascot back in June for the G1 Coronation Stakes. That race always draws the best of the best 3yr.old European turf fillies. Won this year by Immortal Verse. Who followed the Coronation Stakes win up with a win over Goldikova in the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois. But Winter Memories is the one American turf filly that I feel like would be very competitive against the best European turf fillies. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see both Winter Memories and Theysken's Theory run very well in this year's BC F&M Turf.
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