Going on the road doesn’t bother Sangria Summer. It seems not much else does, either.
Sangria Summer, who has the second-fastest mile of the season for a three-year-old female pacer thanks to her 1:48.1 win in the Shady Daisy on Aug. 8 at The Meadowlands, next visits Pocono Downs at Mohegan Pennsylvania for the $250,000 USD James M. Lynch Memorial (Grade 1) this Saturday, Aug. 22.
The Luc Blais trainee has three wins and a second-place finish in her past four races and is the 3-1 second choice on the morning line for the Lynch, which is one of six graded stakes events on Pocono’s Sun Stakes Saturday card. Sangria Summer will start from post four in a field of eight, with James MacDonald in the sulky.
“She’s a very nice horse, very professional,” said Blais, who trains Sangria Summer for owner Determination of Montreal, Que. “Wherever you go, she feels like it’s home. She doesn’t worry about this or that; she doesn’t worry about anything. She’s just a pleasure to be around.”
Sangria Summer is a daughter of Captaintreacherous out of the mare Shower Play, who was an O’Brien Award winner in Canada at age three in 2018. Last year, Sangria Summer hit the board in three of 10 starts and earned a paycheque on nine occasions, including in two Grade 1 stakes – the Breeders Crown and Shes A Great Lady. Determination bought the filly, previously trained by co-owner Kevin Benn, following her first race this year, a 1:53.1 victory in a conditioned race at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
“I was impressed with the way she did it,” Blais said about the victory in which Sangria Summer rallied from fourth with a :26 last quarter. “We were looking for a horse like her. We don’t have too many three-year-olds this year and she caught our eye.”
In nine races for Blais, Sangria Summer has hit the board seven times, winning three and earning $197,964. She finished fourth in the Fan Hanover Stakes (Grade 1) on June 13 at Mohawk, where she was an inside seventh on the final turn before fanning five-wide in the stretch to close with a race-best :26.2 last quarter.
“She was locked in, but when she got out, she was flying at the end,” said Blais.
Two starts later, Sangria Summer won a conditioned race with a sustained first-over bid, getting home in :26 to score in 1:48.4. She finished second in her next race, the Nadia Lobell (Grade 3) at Eldorado Scioto Downs, before putting together back-to-back triumphs that both featured :25.4 last quarters.
In the Shady Daisy (Grade 3), the second of those two victories, she won by a head over Darlins Angel and three-quarters of a length over third-place finisher Be Perfect BG. The time of 1:48.1, just one-fifth of a second off the stakes record, has been bettered by only Loua Dipa (1:48) this season among the sophomore filly pacers.
“She raced super,” Blais said about Sangria Summer, who has 11 top three finishes in 20 career races and has earned $316,641. “She’s got a nice gait and she is very fast and tough. She doesn’t look like she gets tired. She can carry her speed well. It’s very exciting.”
Blais, who received the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship in 2021, is best known for his success with trotters, including 2019 Hambletonian champion Forbidden Trade (who was Horse of the Year that season), and other Grade 1 winners such as Intimidate, Emoticon Hanover, On A Streak and Emoticon Legacy (also all O’Brien Award honourees).
In recent years, though, he’s also captured graded events with pacers, such as the Charles Juravinski Memorial Cup (Grade 2) with Calicojack Hanover last year and the Potomac Pace (Grade 3) with Enavant, upsetting Allywag Hanover, in 2021. Blais was third in the 2022 North America Cup (Grade 1) with Frozen Hanover.
“A good horse is a good horse, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a trotter or pacer,” said Blais. “You just try to keep them happy and fit. That’s it. You just try not to mess them up and let them go the way they like.”
Sangria Summer will meet Be Perfect BG and Darlins Angel again in the Lynch. Be Perfect BG is the 5-2 morning line favourite and will leave from post five with Dexter Dunn driving for trainer Anthony Beaton. Darlins Angel will go from post six, with Lauren Tritton in the sulky for trainer Juan Cano. She is the 4-1 third choice.
Racing begins at 2:30 p.m. for Sun Stakes Saturday at Pocono Downs. The Lynch Memorial is race 10 on the 14-race card that also features the $250,000 USD Delmonica Hanover (Grade 1) for three-year-old female trotters, the Max C. Hempt Memorial (Grade 2) for three-year-old male pacers and the $300,000 USD Earl Beal Jr. Memorial for three-year-old male trotters.
Click here for free Sun Stakes Saturday program pages from the Pennsylvania Harness Horsemen's Association.
(USTA)