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Becoming the 19th New York-bred open stakes winner
of 2008 and the ninth state-bred graded winner of
'08 -- five from the emerging star crop of 2005
-- Flying Zee Stable's New York homebred I LOST
MY CHOO captured Colonial Downs' $200,000 graded
Virginia Oaks for three-year-old fillies on Saturday,
July 19. The stretch-sprinting daughter of Western
Expression was the 2-to-1 favorite among nine in
the mile and an eighth turf event, for which jockey
Edgar Prado was on board for the fifth consecutive
time in competition, scoring her second stakes victory
in three weeks. I Lost My Choo is the 10th New York-bred
open '08 stakes winner from the talent-laden crop
of 2005 and the fifth state-bred graded winner this
year from that crop, which was conceived the year
after Funny Cide's 2003 Eclipse championship season.
Breaking from the outside post, I Lost My Choo
stalked the pace in sixth place through three-quarters
of a mile as 11.60-to-1 fifth choice Julia Tuttle
-- coming off back-to-back big-margin wins at Colonial
Downs in June -- opened up a 15-length lead. In
the final three-eighths of a mile, the New York-bred
overtook five rivals with a four-wide move, including
Julia Tuttle (who still held a 10-1/2-length advantage
at mid-stretch) plus fellow late-closer Namaste's
Wish, the 3-to-1 second choice and a turf stakes
winner at Belmont. I Lost My Choo drove clear late
to win by a length and a half over Namaste's Wish,
giving Prado his second consecutive turf stakes-winning
ride of the day, while the royally-bred Julia Tuttle
held for third under two pounds less weight than
the top two finishers.
Prado intimated that he had not been concerned
when Julia Tuttle drew off to her seemingly insurmountable
lead: "I knew my filly had a nice kick,"
Prado revealed afterwards.
Winning trainer Philip Serpe, who also had trained
I Lost My Choo's sire, Western Expression, had been
less confident: "Speed can be very dangerous,
and a lot of times they just forget to stop and
back up, and that seemed like it might be the case
at the three-eighths pole. But I could see in the
stretch that our filly had cut loose and was gaining,
and the other filly (Julia Tuttle) looked like she
might be tiring just a little bit."...continued
on "NY-breds in the News" page
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