Vindication Vindicated

Jude T. Feld

In less than a week’s time, Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm’s freshmen sire, Vindication, has produced two impressive winners – a filly at Del Mar and a colt at Saratoga. Being a son of Seattle Slew, out of a Strawberry Road (Aus) mare, he figured to have more winners in the fall but he is really heating up the two-year-old picture this summer.

More Happy was very professional breaking her maiden at first-asking in Saturday’s fourth race at Del Mar. It is difficult to produce accurate speed and pace figures on the fledgling Del Mar Poly Track but she earned the same figure as the winner of the CTBA Stakes for Cal-bred fillies the day before which is a very good sign. Her trainer, Bob Baffert, who also trained Vindication, is extremely high on her and so is her jockey David Flores.

“I wanted her to win,” said Baffert post-race. “But David was out there schooling her. I thought she might get tired on the Poly but she was fit enough to win. I think she’ll definitely move forward off this race.”

Sargent Seattle, a $450K Keeneland yearling purchase trained by Stanley Hough, was visually impressive winning Saratoga’s second race on Wednesday and was the subject of much ballyhoo on the television after his sparkling performance.

Beating Bold Trust, a stakes-placed (3rd – W.L. Proctor @ Hollywood) colt who has earned very respectable figures for a two-year-old by just over six lengths and In Orbit, a $330K Fasig-Tipton buy by Sky Mesa who was “second time Lukas,” are definitely feathers in his cap.

He ran faster than the fillies in the Schuylerville, but that race was more of a rodeo. The winner, Subtle Aly, was originally purchased for $3,000 and certainly more than validated that amount with a game effort, but Blitzing got a nonchalant ride from Shaun Bridgmohan and Cornelio “Hands of Lead” Velazquez got the favorite, According to Plan, left at the gate, so it is hard to gauge who was really the best of that lot.

Vindication, who won the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) stood the 2007 breeding season at a $60,000 stud fee. That looks like a bargain right now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Featured Articles. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.