SARATOGA SPRINGS – With a furlong left to run in yesterday’s $75,000 Yaddo Stakes for New York-breds at 11/8 miles on turf here, hundreds of players chasing the $59,612 one-day pick 6 carryover shook their heads in disgust.
Many of them had singled 4-5 favorite Terreavigne in the Yaddo. But by deep stretch it was obvious she wasn’t going to catch front-running Truebreadpudding, who drew clear to score by 21/4 lengths with Terreavigne settling for second.
“It worked out perfectly,” said winning rider John Velazquez. “We thought she was the only real speed in the race. She was itching in the gate and came out faster than we expected.”
Truebreadpudding’s victory was a welcome relief to Velazquez and her trainer, Gary Sciacca, both mired in slumps.
“It’s been a disappointing meeting with the death of the owner (Ray Wennick of Winbound Farm, who died of a heart attack here early in he meet),” Sciacca said. “But I’m at least glad that his horse won.”
Terreavigne, said jockey Jerry Bailey, “had absolutely no excuse. She had three-quarters of a mile to make up a length and a half and couldn’t do it.”
Truebreadpudding ran the mile and an eighth in 1:46.4, paying $15 to top a $36 exacta and a $124 trifecta with Highland Strike third. On a day when four favorites won in the pick 6 sequence, the bonanza still returned a whopping $8,899 to 30 savvy winners.