Added Pletcher: "She broke much better today and put herself in a much better spot. She was more comfortable doing it."Adieu had been favored in all three of her previous starts, but the crowd let her go at 7-1 odds Friday. She returned $17.40, $8.30, and $5.50. Folklore paid $8 and $5.10, while Along the Sea got third and was worth $6.70."This was a high-quality field," said D. Wayne Lukas, the trainer for second-place Folklore. "We would have loved to have won it, but finishing second is not all that bad. I think she will be better yet. I was pleased with the race." Adieu was bred in Kentucky by the Greathouse family's Glencrest Farm and sold first as a yearling for $140,000. She was purchased by her current owners for $300,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of 2-year-olds in training this March. She is out of the At the Threshold mare Irene's Talkin.(Chart, Equibase)
You didn't say goodbye to your money if you bet on Adieu in the Spinaway Stakes (gr. II) at Saratoga Friday.Adieu tracked the leaders and then held off Folklore for her second stakes win. Winner of the Astoria in July, she is the first stakes winner for her first-crop sire, El Corredor.Effectual, who was unbeaten in her two starts and was sent off the 7-5 favorite, broke sharply and set the early fractions. Adieu, under John Velazquez for trainer Todd Pletcher, was able to track to the outside in second and make her run for the victory at the top of the stretch, pulling away late for a one-length margin at the wire."She stalked and was very game today," Velazquez said. "I asked her so quickly at the quarter pole and she went and opened up right away to the horse on the lead. She started waiting and pulling up and I said 'Oh boy, let someone else come early so she doesn't get surprised.' She just kept coming, little by little. The closer the horses got the more she gave me."The fractions were :22.25, :45.41 and 1:10.31 with the seven-furlongs run in 1:23.68. Effectual faded to finish fifth in the seven-horse field.Adieu was gaining her third win in four starts for owner Michael Tabor, Susan Magnie, and Derrick Smith while improving her earnings to $254,470. Her only defeat came in her third start, when she ran fourth in the Adirondack (gr. II) July 27."She felt much better," Velazquez said, in comparing her two races at Saratoga. "She seemed to have a better hold of the track. She broke much better."