Pocket Dynamo
January 7th, 2003by Jude T. Feld
“Little Lady Tak…a pocket dynamo…takes the Fair Grounds Oaks by three!” exclaimed track announcer Michael Wrona, as she cruised towards the finish line. Her fifth straight victory, without ever tasting defeat, the diminutive daughter of Mutakddim has accomplished so much with such little expectations.
Lady Tak Captures FG Oaks
AP Photo/Lou Hodges, Jr.
Eclipse Award-winning owner John Franks bred Lady Tak and her dam, Star of My Eye in Florida. Consigned on his behalf to the Keeneland 2001 September Yearling Sale by bloodstock agent Dan Kenny, the gavel dropped with a $7500 bid from C & W Farms of Bob Cunningham.
“My kids were always wanting to pinhook with me,” he said. “So I found this filly for them.”
Her lack of a flashy pedigree and small stature caused her to be overlooked by many buyers but Cunningham saw something he liked.
“Lots of times,” he shared. “I’ll end up with horses that are a little bit on the smaller side. I buy all on looks. I don’t even look at the pedigree until I’ve seen the conformation. She was a very nice-looking filly, though the sire wasn’t hot at the time.”
Pinhooked back into Keeneland’s 2002 April Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, Lady Tak breezed an eighth of a mile in just over 10 seconds, but galloped out three furlongs in :33 flat, prompting trainer Steve Asmussen to recommend her as a racing prospect to Bill Heiligbrodt.
As Asmussen got Lady Tak ready to run, he found out she was something special.
“I’ve never had anything that could work like her,” he said.
She broke her maiden at first asking, romping by almost 12 lengths at Churchill Downs on a sloppy main track. She validated that victory with another success over conditioned allowance fillies under the twin spires and then was shipped to New Orleans for the winter.
Asmussen chose the Thelma Stakes for her Fair Grounds coming out party and Lady Tak was the belle of the ball, waltzing to a five-length score. Her next dance would be the Tiffany Lass Stakes, her initial try around two turns. Not to be denied, the pride of Heiligbrodt Racing Stable defeated a solid field of sophomore fillies, earning a berth in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2).
Belle of Perintown, facile victress of the local Silverbulletday (G2) and $1.9 million purchase and multiple stakes winner Atlantic Ocean, herself riding a three-race win skein, were formidable Oaks foes for sure, but despite the lofty competition, Lady Tak was bet down to even money by the sharp Big Easy crowd.
Usually a front-runner, it was a surprise to see the famous white silks with the lone burnt orange Texas star in the fourth spot, but when jockey Donnie Meche asked her for run, Lady Tak responded three-wide to engage for the lead and promptly drew away from Atlantic Ocean, winning by just over three lengths, garnering a blanket of flowers and her first graded stakes trophy, while improving her record to a perfect five wins in five starts with $355,920 in earnings.
“She deserves all the credit,” her trainer said in the winners’ circle. “She is more than one in a million.”
Bob Baffert, Atlantic Ocean?s trainer was also full of praise.
“Lady Tak was really impressive,” he stated. “I thought we were gonna win at the top of the lane but Atlantic Ocean couldn’t quicken with her.”
Whether you pay $1.9 million, $75,000 or $7,500 racing is a game of chance. It’s a new twist on the old wheel of fortune.
“Around and around she goes. Where Lady Tak stops, nobody knows.”
