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NEWS 
THE TEAM
THE METHOD
GETTING STARTED
FAMOUS HORSES
STATISTICS
ROSTER
LINKS |
On the morning of the race, Team Valor president Barry Irwin phoned trainer Todd Pletcher and said he had an idea about the one-mile Listed stakes event. “Uh oh,” said an apprehensive Pletcher. Irwin said he saw no pace in the grass race and he wanted Pletcher to alert Johnny Velasquez to the likelihood of a chance for a theft on the lead. “I am not saying we tell Johnny to go to the front,” explained Irwin. “But if the pace fails to materialize as I suspect, Johnny should be ready to rate the filly on the lead and make an early run for the wire.” In the paddock, when Pletcher explained things to his rider, Velasquez concurred, saying “Yeah, there is some pace, but it’s all 24 kind of route speed.” Audacious Chloe could have run in the Edgewood Stakes in two weeks at Churchill Downs going a mile and a sixteenth, the distance over which she beat Eclipse Award winner Dreaming of Anna in her seasonal debut to take the Gaily Gaily Stakes. That afternoon, Velasquez took the filly off the pace as he was asked to do by Pletcher. “Todd must have thought I was nuts to be considering a change of tactics for the Keeneland race after I drove him crazy over the winter stressing to him that the filly would never be able to realize her full potential if she were allowed to use her speed too early,” laughed Irwin. “But this filly is probably best at a mile, she had learned to rate and in her pre-race half-mile breeze over the Polytrack she turned in a brilliant bullet work of :46 2/5.”
When the gates popped open, Audacious Chloe from the 4 stall stumbled on her initial step with her left front leg, then veered right to balance herself. Such was the lack of true speed in the race that the More Than Ready 3-year-old was still able to find herself on the lead. Carrying the crimson and green silks of Team Valor, which owns the filly in partnership with Audrey Haisfield’s NeverTell Racing LLC, Audacious Chloe opened a daylight lead going into the first turn. Through dawdling fractions of :24.57 and :48.87, the 6 to 5 favorite dominated things up front, strolling along effortlessly with her ears pricked. Turning for home, Velasquez sat chilly until the filly was well into the lane, at which point he balanced himself and asked the Kentucky-bred miss to run for the wire. The field began to contract as the front runners sped toward the finishing post. Audacious Chloe tenaciously stuck to her task and only flattened her ears in the last couple of strides, as she confidently held her challengers at bay to win by a neck.
The first three under the wire filled three of the top four positions all the way around the Keeneland oval. Except for a daylight lead rounding the first turn, Audacious Chloe never had a clear lead again until opening up a bit in mid stretch. Audacious Chloe improved her career record in 7 starts to 4 wins and 2 seconds, her only non-productive effort coming when unplaced in a Graded dirt sprint at Saratoga. The winning check of more than $71,000 increased the chestnut’s earnings to nearly $220,000. Barry Irwin made the daughter of More Than Ready his lone yearling purchase in North America two seasons ago when the filly was knocked down on a single bid of $300,000 at Saratoga. Such was the esteem in which he held the filly that Irwin named her after his own daughter. In 2007 Team Valor has been represented to date by 5 stakes winners, all but one of which was bought as a yearling. Earlier winners were Grade 1 winner Little Miss Magic and Grade 3 winner Stately in South Africa, and Grade 3 winner Fairbanks at Santa Anita. Sugar Baby Love, a top-rated filly at 2 in Germany, was scratched from the Appalachian due to a strained ligament sheath below her right hock and is now being pointed at Pimlico’s Hilltop Stakes in mid May. More press links on Audacious Chloe: Daily Racing Form The Blood-Horse Lexington Herald-Leader News Channel 5.com Keeneland story 1 Keeneland story 2
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