Late-Charging Stylelistick Takes Appalachian Stakes

• Print
• Tweet

The 3 year old daughter of Storm Cat, out of Magnificent Style (by Silver Hawk), rolled easily past frontrunners August Storm and Atlantic Fury who ran shoulder to shoulder for most of the one mile race. Lush Soldier also was able to sneak up in the stretch and took second place over August Storm who stayed in the hunt for third. The final time was 1:36 3/5.

Stylelistick was ridden by Pat Day who is second in the Keeneland jockey standings with 10 wins.

"She was a lot more settled today than when I rode her in the fall," said Day. "She's a very fine filly. It was a fine performance."

Bill Mott trains the filly for owners Dream With Me Stable and Team Valor. A $225,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, Stylelistick was bred by Swettenham Stud.

She's pretty good, huh?" said Team Valor's Barry Irwin. "What a turn of foot she has. This is our fifth stakes winner this year."

The Appalachian was third meeting between Stylelistick and Lush Soldier. They first faced each other Oct. 25 at Keeneland in the 1 1/16-mile Green River Stakes, which Stylelistick took by 2 3/4 lengths in a very similarly run race. The pair met again on March 20 at Gulfstream Park in a $36,000 allowance race that also belonged to Stylelistick.

Stylelistick paid $7, $3.80, and $3.20. Lush Soldier paid $9.80 and $6.00, while August Storm paid $3.80.

Atlantic Fury finished fourth, followed by Hi Tech Honeycomb, Once Around, Affirm Miss, Academic Angel, and Marinade.

In other Keeneland racing news, Saints Cup made his first start in more than 2 1/2 years and took a six-furlong sprint wire-to-wire. The 5-year-old horse, ridden by Robby Albarado for trainer Steve Margolis, jumped to the early lead and never looked back, setting fractions of :22, :45 4/5, and 57 4/5. He defeated 13-10 favorite Rain King by 1 3/4 lengths and paid $6.20, $3.20, and $2.60. The final time of 1:10 was exactly the same as the time for Saints Cup in his first and only other career start. In that race, Saints Cup rolled to a 9 3/4-length victory in a maiden race at Saratoga in August 1999.

Saints Cup was subsequently purchased for $850,000 by Barry Golden and Peter Callahan from the partial dispersal of Robert (Country) and Bea Roberts to that year's Keeneland November breeding stock sale. The new owners sued and sought to rescind their purchase, contending that Saints Cup had a bowed tendon at the time of the auction. Golden and Callahan alleged that the injury was concealed in an effort to attract a better purchase price for Saints Cup. Just before attorneys on both sides were to give final arguments in the suit, it was settled out of court. Under terms of the settlement, Callahan and Golden paid the Robertses $250,000 and the purchase of Saints Cup was rescinded.

Saints Cup now races for Jeri and Sam Knighton. (Charts, Equibase)