4-Year-Old Filly Remains Undefeated with Sixth Straight Victory
BALTIMORE – Daniel Lopez and George Chestnut’s Chub Wagon, undefeated through her first five starts, kept her perfect record intact with an uncharacteristic come-from-behind victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Runhappy Skipat at Pimlico Race Course.
The 28th running of the Skipat for fillies and mares 3 and up sprinting six furlongs was the fifth of 10 stakes, six graded, worth $2.25 million in purses on a spectacular 14-race program headlined by the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1), Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.
Ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. for Parx-based trainer Guadalupe Preciado, Chub Wagon ($4.40) had led at every point of call in each of her races but was outrun for the lead by multiple stakes winner Dontletsweetfoolya, who ran a quarter-mile in 22.87 seconds and the half in 46.05, with French Empire – a winner of her last four races – racing second and Chub Wagon settled in third.
Ortiz tipped Chub Wagon outside at the top of the stretch with sights set on Dontletsweetfoolya, who had a five-race win streak snapped when seventh in the Feb. 20 Barbara Fritchie (G3), her most recent start. The bay daughter of Hey Chub took over the top spot nearing the eighth pole and opened up to win by two lengths in 1:09.71 over a fast main track.
Casual, shuffled back soon after the start, came flying late to edge Club Car by a nose for second, with Dontletsweetfoolya fourth by 2 ½ lengths over Never Enough Time. Call On Mischief and French Empire completed the order of finish.
Chub Wagon, bred in Pennsylvania by co-owner Chestnut and Joe-Dan Farm, won her first five races by 41 ¼ combined lengths. The Skipat was her second career stakes win and first in open company following the seven-furlong Unique Bella against state-breds April 27 at Parx.
Bred in Connecticut, Skipat won 26 of 45 career races over six years, earning $614,215 between 1977 and 1981. Two of her wins came in the Barbara Fritchie (G3), in 1979 and 1981, the latter coming the year after she had been retired and bred and brought back to the races.
$100,000 Runhappy Skipat Quotes
Winning Trainer Guadalupe Preciado (Chub Wagon): “We wanted to try to do that [sit off the pace], and today was the perfect day. We wanted to see if she could rate in case, one day, we’ve got a lot of speed, we know whether we can do it or not. And it worked out good today. We know she can come from behind.”
“She’s a nice filly. She does whatever we ask of her. The first time I breezed her, you could see right away the talent. Any good horse you can see the way they do it.”
“We’re going to see how she comes back and probably we’ll take one step a little higher. She responds every time we ask her to.”
Winning Jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. (Chub Wagon): “She relaxed more. I broke out of there, I see the other horse had some speed, so I just went to Plan B. She relaxed. She did great. She was all class. When I asked her to run, she just went on like a nice horse.”
“Her mind is getting better. The way she ran today, she looked like a really nice sprinter. She would be right there in the conversation with the good ones.”
Trainer Steve Asmussen (Casual; 2nd): “[The track] is not suiting who she is. She’s a nice filly.”
Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. (Casual; 2nd): “There was a lot of speed in this race and she comes from behind. She tried hard. She made a great run. She ran her race.”