Issue link: http://nytbreeders.epubxp.com/i/609330
38 New York Breeder | nytbreeders.org | December 2015 Speedy Sheriffa comes from off the pace to win the Staten Island adam coglianese/nyra Sherifa and Cornelio Velasquez For the $125,000 New York Stallion Series Staten Island Division Stakes at Aqueduct Race - track on Nov. 15, the plan for Sheriffa was the same as it's always been: go to the lead and use her speed. On paper, who could argue? The flly's best races had come as the pacesetter, and she was the lone speed in the eight-horse feld. But there's that old saying about the best-laid plans, and when the gates opened, seven runners broke well, and the one who didn't was the one who was supposed to lead the feld to the wire. "I was sick to my stomach," said trainer Linda Rice. But jockey Cornelio Velasquez, who had ridden Sheriffa to an off-the-pace runner-up fnish against open company at Belmont in May, kept his cool, gathering the 4-year-old chestnut flly and easing her into the race, avoiding the temptation to rush her up into position. "She backed up right before the gate opened," he said. "I had no choice but to run her behind the 3 (Old Harbor) at that point." Keeping her well clear, Velasquez let Vicki's Dancer, who won this race last year, set the pace through the opening half-mile of the seven-furlong race, making steady progress into the far turn. As the leader tired, the flly he'd kept in reserve un - leashed a kick to get the win by a length over the closing Saythreehailmary's. The fnal time was 1:23.57. "I thought my flly was the best flly in the race," Velasquez said. "When she got to the lead, she gal - loped." Bred by Colts Neck Stables, Sheriffa was New Dimension B y T e r e s a G e n a r o claimed by Linda Rice for owner Antonino Miuccio for $16,000 in Septem- ber of 2014. In nine races since, the daughter of Posse out of the Unbridled's Song mare Smileforamile has fnished out of the top three only twice and won her frst two stakes races; she's earned just shy of $300,000 for Rice and Miuccio. "She's been a great claim," said Rice. A resident of Albany, Miuccio has about a half-dozen horses with Rice, all of them acquired through the claiming ranks. In a lot of barns Sheriffa could be the highlight of a trainer's claims, but this flly has to defer that title to stablemate and fellow New York-bred Palace, also owned by Miuc - cio, who claimed him for $20,000 and watched him become a multiple grade I-winning millionaire. "He likes pedigree," said Rice of her owner, "and so do I. We have the same taste, and we're a good match." Her stomach settled by the time the winner's circle photo had been tak - en, Rice acknowledged the bad break—given that it led to victory—might have given her flly a chance to show a different dimension. "When you win, it's a nice fortuitous thing that happens," she said. "She's run some really nice races on the lead. She's got a lot of natural speed and that was our intention. "But things just don't always go the way they're supposed to, and it's kind of nice to know that she can run off the pace, too." In addition to having to adjust to the bad break, Sheriffa might also, Rice noted, be growing up. "Often as horses get older and more mature, they learn to do a few things they didn't do before," she observed. "I like to think that's the case with her, too." A virus and subsequent case of pneumonia earlier this year has left Sher - iffa relatively lightly raced in 2015; she was off from May to September, and though she threw in a rare bad effort last out at Belmont in her frst start off the layoff, Rice likes what she sees now and has no plans to give her a break. "We freshened her last winter, and she came back doing really well," said the trainer. "But I think she's had plenty of time this year and she's in great form now. She's been training fabulous, and I'm going on with her."