Denovo Stables and Pickin’ Winners Snag First Graded Win Ever!

In her two wins coming into the Grade 2 Lil‘ Leprechaun Dash in Greece, Pickin’ Winners blew big leads and just barely hung on to win by the slimmest of margins–albeit at slightly longer distances than the seven furlongs stakes she ran on Saturday.

So when the six year old daughter of Fusaichi Pegasus owned by Denovo Stables grabbed a big lead early once again and still had the lead on the turn for home, her owner Pete was cheering for her to win more than just her third consecutive race.

He was also pulling for his first graded stakes winner since he began training.

When Pickin’ Winners hit the wire first on Saturday in the Lil’ Leprechaun Dash, it was the first graded stakes winner ever for Pete and Denovo Stables after nearly nine years of training.

“Yesterday was just a magical day for me,” said an excited Pete. “I’m sure we all hope for those graded wins to put on our SIM-CV. And yesterday, after 466 racing Saturdays–that’s two weeks short of nine years–it finally happened for me!”

Pickin’ Winners bounced out of the 12 hole quickly and headed straight for the rail on the clubhouse turn before bouncing out to as much as a four-length lead and withstanding a late charge from Silver Noel to win the $150,000 Grade 2 Lil’ Leprechaun Stakes in Greece this weekend.

Pickin’ Winners cruised easily in the gate-to-wire win, turning in some pretty fast fractions along the way, in much the same way she did in her prior two wins coming into Saturday’s race in Greece.

She nearly blew leads of seven lengths and two lengths in winning her last two starts in allowance events before Saturday’s first-ever graded stakes win for Pete and his six year old mare.

Subtle, the post-time favorite Saturday, and Hussie Dance tried to run with Pickin’ Winners for much of the way early in Saturday’s race. But the mare, who was bred and donated by Lenny of lenny271 Stables and won by Pete in a Minnesota residency competition in July 2007-2008 when she was a three year old, turned back those two and also turned in a pretty gutsy performance in deep stretch to win by length and a half over the hard-charging Silver Noel.

After Silver Noel, Oil On Top finished third, followed by K’s Seize My Day and Just Got Paid.

The win for Pickin’ Winners was satisfying on a number of levels. Not only was it his first graded stakes win, it was also satisfying in another, very special way for Pete.

“The race was also, though not by design, an EWC in-residency challenge between myself and Lordpye, whose mare Oil On Top also ran a great race to make it an EWC first and third in the race,” said Pete.

It was also a race that Pete hadn’t originally planned for Pickin’ Winners, who won the listed Battlefield Earth(GB) Stakes in both 2009 and 2010.

“I hadn’t planned the Lil’ Leprechaun, but I had trained her for the week. And everything seemed to fall into place,” said Pete. “(It was) another drop back in distance. She was running the (same) speeds the contenders in that grade 2 were, and it was an EWC Residency track.”

“You gotta be in it to win it!” exclaimed Pete. “She’s always seemed to favor the months from June through November, and she’s thrown a swathe of speed figures close to 110 during those months. So in she went. The odds didn’t come back that well, and I didn’t really expect her to figure then. But in reality, the top eight horses were pretty close on odds, and she ran the race of her life.”

And Pickin’ Winners did exactly that for Pete.

Pickin’ Winners, racing outside the United States for the first time ever, turned in fractions of 45.14 at the four-furlong marker and 108.85 at the six-furlong pole in the seven-furlong race. Pickin’ Winners popped a 108 speed figure in Saturday’s win, turning in a time of 1:21 3/5 for the seven furlongs.

“I always felt she had some special potential,” said Pete, “especially after she ran her first 110 speed figure in January of 2009. After her March run this year, I was wondering whether she might have been on the way out, and marked her down to try her longer and also to try her on the turf again. Whilst I haven’t got her to turf yet, she went the 8.5 furlongs okay enough (two starts back), winning. Then I dropped her back a half furlong last time out, securing another nice win at a 109 speed figure.”

Pete said he would probably give Pickin’ Winners a much deserved rest now, before possibly heading back to America and trying for the hat trick in the 6.5 furlong Battlefield Earth Stakes in Rhode Island in mid-September.

Pickin’ Winners paid $19.50, $10.70 and $7.50 to her backers Saturday. She and Silver Noel combined for a 12-7 exacta that paid $165.80.  The 12-7-13 trifecta with Oil On Top third paid $2,184.10.