Phoenix Thoroughbred III’s Crazy Beautiful, grade 1-placed at 2, rallied from well off the pace to be a 2 1/4-length winner of the $200,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) March 27 in South Florida. Grade 3-placed at Churchill Downs last fall and gaining 100 points toward the April 30 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) with Saturday’s score, the daughter of Liam’s Map  figures to make Louisville her next destination.

Crazy Beautiful, a sleet gray/roan filly, is trained by Kenny McPeek, who won last year’s race with eventual classic winner and champion Swiss Skydiver. Swiss Skydiver was a 9-1 unknown a year ago; Crazy Beautiful paid $6 as the second choice. The 3-6 exacta with Juddmonte Farms’ Millefeuille paid $32.40. Favored Con Lima finished fourth behind Competitive Speed.

Bred in Kentucky by Carolyn Vogel out of the grade 3-placed Indian Charlie mare Indian Burn, Crazy Beautiful was a little stubborn to load and was last early in a tight-bunched field of seven going 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park. Con Lima, who had made her last four starts on turf, was hustled from the rail to get the early lead and was able to set sensible fractions of :24.16 for the opening quarter-mile and :48.69 for the half-mile while being stalked by Bow Bow Girl, Len Lo Lady, and Pens Street.

On the turn, the Bill Mott-trained Millefeuille drove to the leader and was able to get the advantage at the head of the lane, but Jose Ortiz and Crazy Beautiful came with a four-wide move into the stretch. She drove down the center of the track and pulled away in the final sixteenth. Millefeuille finished 1 3/4 lengths ahead of Competitive Speed.

The time over a fast track was 1:44.41. The win was Ortiz’ third on the day.

“I told Jose, ‘Don’t worry; don’t force anything; get her in a nice rhythm’ and he did that,” McPeek said. “She’s got a great punch and a nice turn of foot.

“Her last race was key—she ran really well in that race (second behind Wholebodemeister in the one-mile Davona Dale Stakes, G2, in her 2021 debut). I thought we had her about 80-85% for that start.”

The victory gives Crazy Beautiful a 3-3-0 mark from seven starts. She has earned $388,365.

Last year after two wins at Ellis Park she ran second in Churchill Downs’ Pocahontas Stakes (G3) and second in Keeneland‘s Darley Alcibiades Stakes (G1) before running sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

“Last year she was a bit of a bridesmaid, running well against some that were pretty good and she deserved a graded stakes win. She had been second a couple of times, but she’s one of those great students that does everything you ask of her,” said McPeek. “We are proud of her.”

McPeek, as agent, paid $250,000 for Crazy Beautiful from the Little’s Bloodstock consignment at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Yearlings Sale. 

fonte : Bloodhorse.com