Sunday, November 18, 2012

Zenyatta's half-sister, Eblouissante, wins debut

Could she be the second coming of Zenyatta? Emulating her half-sister's nearly perfect career will not be easy, but the three-year-old filly Eblouissante showed a great deal of promise in romping to victory in a 1 1/16th miles allowance race on Friday at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Ridden to victory by Corey Nakatani, Eblouissante was off just a touch slowly, and thus found herself racing in seventh place early on, about five lengths behind the front-running Saturday Nite Ride, who was setting a moderate pace of :23.87 and :48.07. Urania, Belonging, and Chestnut Moon were racing close to the pace, followed by Out for Revenge, Playful Humor, Eblouissante, and Spin the Blues.

Rounding the far turn, Nakatani guided Eblouissante to the outside, and the filly responded with terrific acceleration that carried her past the majority of the field. With her white shadow roll bobbing up and down, it looked like Zenyatta all over again.

In the homestretch, Saturday Nite Live put up a decent fight and maintained the lead past the eighth pole, but Eblouissante proved much too good, drawing off with powerful strides to win by 4 1/4 lengths in 1:45.27 seconds.

Chestnut Moon rallied late to edge Saturday Nite Live for second, while Belonging, Spin the Blues, Urania, Playful Humor, and Out for Revenge completed the order of finish.

The winner is owned by Eric Kronfield and trained by John Shirreffs.

-Keelerman

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