May Day Ready Captures GII Lake Placid Stakes With Front-Running Performance
KatieRich Stables‘ May Day Ready delivered a commanding wire-to-wire victory in the GII Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday, adding another graded stakes triumph to her impressive resume.
Under a perfectly timed ride by Eclipse Award-winning jockey Jose Ortiz, the 3-year-old Tapit filly seized control early and never relinquished her advantage, completing the one-mile turf contest in 1:35.70 over firm ground.
May Day Ready ($3.70) held off 6-5 favorite Play With Fire by a half-length, with Eponine finishing third, two lengths behind the runner-up.
The victory marked a return to winning form for May Day Ready, who had previously finished fourth in the GI Belmont Oaks Invitational on July 5. The Joseph Lee trainee improved her career record to four wins from eight starts with earnings now exceeding $1.3 million.
“I left it up to Jose,” said trainer Joseph Lee. “I told him, ‘you decide what you want to do.’ But I knew she’d be fresh. I knew if she got a clean break, with the horses that were in there, should someone not decide to go, she may just be on the lead.”
The bay filly established herself as a force on the Saratoga turf course last year when breaking her maiden at first asking. She followed with victories in the Juvenile Fillies Stakes at Kentucky Downs and the GII Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland before finishing second in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar.
May Day Ready dictated comfortable fractions of 24 and change for the quarter and 49 and change for the half-mile before accelerating in the stretch.
“You always hope it works out that way,” Lee added. “To be honest with you, she is a horse that likes competition. When she has a horse next to her, she’ll dig in a little bit more than when she’s by herself. Jose sprinted away there at the end.”
The victory continues the impressive legacy of her sire Tapit, whose progeny include standout young stallions Essential Quality and Flightline.
May Day Ready is the second foal to race out of English Group stakes winner and U.S. multiple Grade I-placed Nemoralia (More Than Ready), whose first offspring was the late Bosque Redondo (War Front). The dam’s most recent registered foal is the unraced 2-year-old filly Munnorlia (Ire) (Munnings).
Play With Fire, trained by Chad Brown, earned her first graded stakes placing for LSU Stables. The Philippe Sogorb-trained Eponine completed the trifecta for Repole Stable.
MAY DAY READY was ready to deliver a big win in the G2 Lake Placid Stakes under
