by Kellie Reilly
Once Starlight Racing and Charles E. Glasscock’s Hilda’s Passion recovered
from a slight stumble at the start and blasted to the lead, Saturday’s Grade 2,
$147,000 Vagrancy Handicap at Belmont Park was as good as over. The 2-5 favorite
rapidly regained her feet and ran her overmatched rivals off theirs, despite the
fact that she was conceding between six and 10 pounds as the 123-pound
highweight. Under regular rider Javier Castellano, the Todd Pletcher trainee
sizzled 6 1/2 furlongs on the fast track in 1:14 4/5, just two ticks off the
track and stakes record set by Bear Fan in 2004, while streaking 5 1/4 lengths
clear.
But for her bobble at the break, Hilda’s Passion didn’t give her opponents
much cause for hope. She grabbed control from longshot Curlina in a matter of
strides, enjoyed a comfortable advantage through an opening quarter in :22 1/5,
and began to pull away through a half in :44 4/5. By that time, Streaker and
Tidal Pool tried to rally, but they couldn’t match strides with Curlina, let
alone the impressive winner.
Hilda’s Passion increased her margin down the stretch, rattling off six
furlongs in 1:08 2/5 en route to the wire. By collecting her fifth victory in
her last seven starts, all in stakes company, she returned $2.90, $2.40 and
$2.10.
“I was kind of worried for just a second there (at the start),” Castellano
said. “She picked up her head a little bit before the gate and I was kind of
concerned. As soon as the gate opened — she’s so quick — I think she tried to
jump it and she stumbled very slightly. It wasn’t a big deal because she
recovered herself.
“She’s a really nice filly. I know the fractions went pretty fast, but I
didn’t feel that she was that fast. I just tried to enjoy the trip and when I
asked her a little bit she took off.”
“She was conceding from six to 10 pounds to everyone in the race,” Pletcher
pointed out, “but she’s a strong filly and doing well. I was a little worried
when she stumbled a bit at the start, but she recovered so quickly. It looked as
if she was at the top of her game today. I thought Tidal Pool would show a
little more speed than she did.”
Curlina, by far the longest shot on the board at 29-1, outran her odds while
finishing second by four lengths. Tidal Pool took third by a nose from Streaker,
and Erin Rose brought up the rear. The field was reduced to five by the
scratches of Kid Kate and Kissa Melissa.
Hilda’s Passion sports a 12-7-2-0 record and $587,993 in earnings. The
four-year-old bay, who landed the off-the-turf Bennington Stakes at Saratoga and
the Grade 2 Raven Run on Keeneland’s Polytrack in her final two outings last
year, has developed into one of the nation’s premier female sprinters this
season.
At Gulfstream Park over the winter, she missed by a neck after a less than
ideal trip in the January 15 Grade 3 Sugar Swirl, but rebounded to capture the
February 13 Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie and March 19 Grade 2 Inside Information,
the latter in a track-record 1:20 2/5 for seven furlongs. Hilda’s Passion was
most recently second in the Grade 1 Humana Distaff at Churchill Downs on
Kentucky Derby Day, beaten by track specialist Sassy Image.
“She’s probably the fastest filly sprinter in the country,” said Jack Wolf,
managing partner of co-owner Starlight Racing. “She lost her last race, but it
was probably more of a function of the other horse traveling well over that
surface. We got beat by a better horse that day, a horse who likes the surface
and was on a better part of the racetrack.”
Bred by Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Kuster in Kentucky, Hilda’s Passion RNA’d for
$4,200 as a Keeneland November weanling. The daughter of Canadian Frontier is
out of the winning El Prado (Ire) mare Executricker, whose latest foals are an
unraced sophomore colt named Mannak, a full brother to Hilda’s Passion, and a
juvenile colt named Edge of the World.
Further back, this is the family of English highweight Twice Over (GB), who
became a two-time winner of the Champion S. (Eng-G1) last fall; Group 1 queen
Passage of Time (GB); champion Banshee Breeze; and Hall of Famer and noted sire
Damascus.
Pletcher has mapped out the summer schedule for Hilda’s Passion.
“I think probably what we’ll do is run here in the (Grade 3) Bed o’Roses (on
July 3) and then in the (Grade 1) Ballerina (on August 27 at Saratoga).”