HOT SPRINGS -- Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen spoke to media for a good 10 minutes after his filly Terra Promessa won the $150,000 Grade III Bayakoa Stakes at Oaklawn Park on Saturday.
In the end, it took Asmussen less than three seconds to sum up Terra Promessa's performance.
"Today's the best race she's ever run," Asmussen said.
That's a mouthful from anyone connected to a horse that has won five races in five starts at Oaklawn, including 4 of 4 in stakes races, and after Saturday, 3 of 3 in graded stakes races.
Terra Promessa, owned by Stonestreet Stables, has won 6 of 9 in her career and has earned $615,600.
Her past record helped explain Terra Promessa's status as a 1-2 favorite when the gates opened on a 62-degree February afternoon that drew an estimated crowd of 21,000.
Except for the second-place finish of Power of Snunner at 37-1, and the participation of Super Saks, a frequent sprinter trained by D. Wayne Lukas, the race wasn't too much different from the Jan. 14 Pippin Stakes, also run at 1 mile, 1/16th, also won by Terra Promessa.
Power of Snunner, trained by Joe Sharp and ridden by Chris Emigh, finished 4¾ lengths behind Terra Promessa, ridden by Ricardo Santana, Jr. Streamline finished third, 7½ lengths behind the winner. Ready to Confess came in fourth, another half length behind Streamline.
"I think Ricardo did a good job today of just riding her," Asmussen said. "It was just like he was going out there to work her. The large rhythm she has, her stride, is her strength, so you don't want to take her away from what she does well."
Ready to Confess finished second in the Pippin and Streamline third, though Ready to Confess' route in the second race was entirely different from hers in the first.
Terra Promessa won in 1:43.18, slightly faster than her time in the Pippin.
"She's 5 for 5 here," Streamline trainer Brian Williamson said. "That really does say it all. She was the horse to beat, the winner."
Streamline broke first, but Terra Promessa led by a nose as the field of eight raced past the wire for the first time.
An expected early challenge from the speedy Super Saks never materialized. Super Saks was reluctant to load, and when she did, she didn't show enough burst to ever get within a length of Terra Promessa, who ran the first quarter in 23.20 and the half in 47.19.
Super Saks, with Alex Birzer up, was 1½ lengths back after a half mile in her first route attempt since April of 2015, when she finished sixth in the Fantasy Stakes. Super Saks had sprinted 14 times since.
Williamson said he hoped and predicted that Super Saks would ensure that Terra Promessa would not be allowed an uncontested lead as she had in the Pippin.
"I was shocked," Williamson said. "That changed everything, but I still feel really good. ... We'll try them again, but I was happy. We got third in a graded race, and we ran hard."
Asmussen said he was unconcerned about the pace of the other fillies and mares or his 4-year-old filly's position relative to any other horse in the field.
"I said, 'Wherever she's at, be happy,' '' he said. "If she's eighth, be happy, so that it wasn't that Ricardo should be confident that she's on the lead, but just be happy."
"She's a filly, you have to understand, that she's like a woman," Santana said. "You have to understand that she's best when she does what she wants to."
Sports on 02/19/2017