The Personal Ensign
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Thursday Saturday Sunday |
Despite hurricane Bonnie just to the south, the weather at Saratoga Friday was gorgeous. Absolutely clear skies and mid 80's brought out a very large crowd to the races. The feature event today was the $400,000 Grade 1 Personal Ensign Handicap for the fillies and mares. The heavy favorites were Escena and Aldiza, the top two finishers in the Go For Wand earlier this month. In that race they battled it out the whole way around with Aldiza just nipping Escena at the wire. Everyone expected them to renew that rivalry today but it didn't happen. Escena was the heavy favorite and went to the lead as expected but it was longshot Tuzia who chased her with Aldiza in third. Aldiza never seemed to get into the race and quit after a mile to finish last. Escena faded in the stretch to finish 6th while 3rd choice Tomisue's Delight rallied from 6th to win going away by 2 lengths. Tuzia stayed in 2nd at the finish while One Rich Lady who had been 4th most of the way got 3rd when the two favorites quit. Needless to say there were some big payoffs because of that.
6 Tomisue's Delight P. Day 10.40 5.00 4.70
4 Tuzia M. Pino 15.80 10.00
1 One Rich Lady R. Migliore 7.60
Distance: 10 furlongs Exacta (6-4): 192.00
Final time: 2:04:08 Trifecta (6-4-1): 1759.00
Owner: Stephen C. Hilbert
Trainer: Neil J. Howard
Also Ran: Dewars Rocks, Amarillo, Escena,
Tuxedo Junction, Aldiza
Here are a few photos from the day taken with my digital camera:
Escena in the paddock, a beautiful mare.
Aldiza getting her tongue tied in the paddock. Shug was putting on his tie at the same time.
Eventual winner Tomisue's Delight in the paddock
Tomisue's Delight heads into the winner's circle.
An artist painting in the paddock
All graphics by the author
