Turbulent Descent wins Santa Anita Oaks
By Ed Zieralski, UNION-TRIBUNE
Originally published March 5, 2011 at 3:49 p.m., updated March 5, 2011 at 4:02 p.m.
ARCADIA — Turbulent Descent hung on to win the Grade I, $250,000 Santa Anita Oaks by a neck in front of Zasu, but don’t look for the talented 3-year-old filly at the Kentucky Oaks on Derby Day in May.
The second-place filly in that race, Zazu, trained by John Sadler, very well could make it to Derby Day and the Kentucky Oaks. But Saturday’s winner, Turbulent Descent, will continue her excellent campaign for 3-year-old Filly of the Year by taking a different, shorter track.
Trainer Mike Puype has seen enough of the talented daughter of Congrats to know that Saturday’s distance of 1 1/16 miles is as far as she wants to go. Maybe too far. Turbulent Descent, with veteran jockey David Flores, fought off a fast-finishing Zazu to avenge a loss to that filly at Santa Anita last month. Turbulent Descent set a stakes record, winning in 1:41.05. But as good as that was, Puype said his filly’s move at the race’s half-way mark was more brilliant than her stretch run, where she hung on and told the real story of her limitations.
“It’s still a brilliant effort,” Puype said. “It’s still a Grade I, and her resume, let’s face it, in five races she has two Grade I wins, a second in a Grade I, a stakes win and a maiden win. There are very few fillies that have ever had that kind of resume with five starts in their life, even Zenyatta. I dare you to find one that has had that.
“Talented horses can come out of their realm to do good things, and she’s done it twice, but believe me when I tell you, go watch her replays, her sprints were breathtaking. This race will take something out of her. She had to extend herself to win.”
Zenyatta, who went 19-0 before taking her only loss in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November, won her maiden, an allowance, two Grade 2s and a Grade I in her first five starts. So yes, except for the second place in the Grade I Las Virgenes at Santa Anita to Zazu, Turbulent Descent’s early resume at 4-1 is at least as impressive as Zenyatta’s first five races.
But don’t look for Turbulent Descent to follow Zenyatta’s lead and race at longer distances in the future.
“I’m afraid, after watching her work so brilliantly all the time, I’m very afraid that this will be max for her,” Puype said. “She won the Hollywood Starlett, and she won the Las Virgines Stakes. To say she can’t do it, is not fair. But look at her first two races. They were breathtaking. Look at how she cruised up on the turn like a beast. She’s a lot of horse going one turn. I cannot see her not being better shortening up the distance to one turn.”
Puype said he will look at the Acorn Stakes at one mile at Belmont Park on Belmont Stakes day and also The Test Stakes at 7 furlongs at Saratoga later this year.
“She can still get 3-year-old Horse of the Year winning those kinds of races,” Puype said. “There are so many races in the country to get the 3-year-old championship. We can dance around. We have a little bit of a head start on everyone now and try and build on that and make a good year.”
That rules out a date on Derby Day on May 7, in the Kentucky Oaks, run at 1 1/8 miles and considered America’s premier race for 3-year-old fillies.
“She would be maxed out going that far against those horses on a back East track,” Puype said. “I do not want to hurt this horse. This is a good horse. If she was meant to go farther, she would have widened her margin from the 1/16th pole to the wire, but you could see the best part of her race wasn’t hanging on. It was her middle move up until about the 1/16th pole.”
“It’s a heckuva start to her career. But trust me, this is max for her and hopefully everyone will think with level heads for her and try to get some shorter distances for her. The story was told down the lane for her today.”
Turbulent Descent, by Congrats out of Roger’s Sue, is owned by William Strauss of Del Mar, Scott Sherwood of Alamo, Colo. (Blinkers On Racing Stable) and Robert Butler of Colorado Springs, Colo.
Look for Zazu to go on to longer distances, however, for trainer John Sadler. Zazu now has two wins and four seconds from seven starts. Two of her second-place finishes were to Turbulent Descent.
“She ran really well, so we’re really excited,” Sadler said. “She ran great, and she looks like she’ll be ready for the Kentucky Oaks. If the race were a little longer, she may have gotten there. I was really happy with the race – other than not winning, she ran great.”
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