It’s No Fantasy: A.P. Sadler Wins
In each of the past four runnings of the Grade II Fantasy Stakes from Arkansas, two of the top three finishers have gone on to run in the Bluegrass Oaks. This year’s edition may send all three, and they will be looking to finish in the money there – something that hasn’t happened in the past four years.
Shaking off an early challenge from a longshot, A.P. Sadler held off the late chargers to win. She now has two graded wins and a record of five wins in ten starts for the LostCode stable. In her two previous races, A.P. Sadler had made bold moves in the top of the stretch only to be run down late. Today, while the margin was decreasing at the end, she looked the strongest she ever has.
With the win, A.P. Sadler moves up in the rankings from 15th to sixth at the distance among her peers.
Maintaining her number one ranking with a second place finish was the favorite: Super21’s No Apagues La Luz. This was the second straight race the Empire Maker filly has been just shy of catching A.P. Sadler.
Moving fastest of all at the end, but moving too late, was the show horse Armed with Money. The Monkfield trained filly was overtaken in the ranking system by the winner and dropped to a number nine ranking, still highly enough ranked to qualify for an early May race.
The winning time on a good dirt surface was 1:42.8 and earned a 98 speed figure.