Bettors had confidence Sugar Shock would win Saturday’s $100,000 American Beauty Stakes despite a seventh-month layoff and a distance, 6 furlongs, which left the 4-year-old daughter by Candy Ride with little margin for error.
And the bettors, at Oaklawn Park and around the country, were right.
Sugar Shock, the 2014 Fantasy Stakes winner, backed up her 8-5 odds by unleashing a midstretch charge to win by one-half length over long shots Spring Included and Haveyougoneaway. The final time was 1:11.62.
There was some uncertainty regarding Sugar Shock coming into the race and it had nothing to do with her ability. She had not raced since pulling up on a sloppy track in the Grade III Iowa Oaks at Prairie Meadows in June, her fifth consecutive race at 1 mile or longer, and she had not raced in a sprint since last February.
But trainer Doug Anderson decided Sugar Shock wasn’t quite ready to run in last week’s two-turn Pippin Stakes and that her first race against older fillies and mares would come at the sprint distance.
Sugar Shock won two sprint races last season at Oaklawn, but she was just off the early pace in both of those.
This time, jockey Channing Hill allowed Sugar Shock to break alertly before settling to the outside in fourth as dueling leaders Spring Included and Fast N Fine Looking ran the first quarter in a swift 21.68 seconds. But it didn’t get a whole lot easier from there.
Sugar Shock “came off the bridle” and fell back on the far turn as several others in the 13-horse field made premature runs at the leaders, and Sugar Shock fell back to sixth. But Hill was able to swing Sugar Shock to the outside and in the clear at the head of the stretch, and once she saw the competition, Hill said, she took aim on the leaders.
“Once I pointed her at the targets, she ran right at them,” Hill said. “Being able to go three-quarters after that long layoff just shows how special she is. She went under the wire pretty easy.”
Anderson said he discussed with Hill the possibility of allowing the early speed to go.
“We thought if they wanted to push it, we could sit back and make one run,” Anderson said. “She’s kind of special.”
When asked if Sugar Shock might return in The Spring Fever on Feb. 21, Oaklawn’s next sprint for older fillies and mares, Anderson said he was eyeing a return to two turns, possibly in the Grade III Azeri Stakes on March 14.
“We’re going to take her back going long again and see what happens,” Anderson said.
Saturday’s victory was the fifth in 10 career starts, increasing her career earnings to $458,130 for owners On Cloud Nine LLc.