EBONY BREEZE (Belong to Me) proved best in Saturday’s $157,750
Chicago
Breeders’ Cup H. (G3) at Arlington Park, rallying in the turn for home and
drawing off to a 1 1/4-length advantage at the wire. Rating off splits of :22,
:44 4/5 and 1:09 as Annika Lass (Mister Jolie), Getcozywithkaylee (Zafarrancho [Arg])
and Silver Crown (Distorted Humor) battled up front for the lead, the Bill
Mott-trained Ebony Breeze took advantage of the quick fractions and challenged
for the lead nearing the furlong point. Taking control in deep stretch, she
stopped the clock for the the seven-furlong affair in 1:22 on the fast dirt with
John Jacinto aboard.
Sent off as the second favorite at nearly 2-1, the six-year-old bay mare
returned $5.80, $4 and $2.40 while leading exotics of $149.40 (exacta), $390.80
(trifecta) and $1,638.40 for the 8-3-7-2 superfecta ($1). The 41-1 longshot Pentelicus Dance (Ecu) (Pentelicus) rallied from last to grab second and give
back $19.60 and $4.40 while Annika Lass was another half-length back in third to
pay $2.40 as the 6-5 favorite. Dimple Pinch (Smoke Glacken) just missed the board by a nose and
was followed by Getcozywithkaylee, For Gillian (Gold Fever) and Silver Crown.
Island Escape (Petionville), Modjadji (Pioneering) and Morner (Broken Vow) were
scratched from the race.
Bred in Kentucky, the Kinsman Stable homebred Ebony Breeze is out of the
stakes-winning Valid Appeal mare Valid Carnauba, who has also produced multiple
stakes hero Boastful (Cozzene) as well as an unraced two-year-old named King
Alliance (Awesome Again) and a yearling full brother named Soldier’s Faith most
recently.
Ebony Breeze, who comes off a pair of third-place finishes in the Winning
Colors S. and Giant’s Causeway S., scored her ninth black-type victory here and
improved her overall record to 36-12-8-8 while surpassing the $1 million mark in
earnings to $1,003,922. Among her other scores are wins in the 2003 Azalea
Breeders’ Cup S. (G3) and Florida Oaks (G3) as well as the 2004 Endine H. (G3).