Jilli Marie, First Horse for Kevin Drew Now a Stakes Winner

This is the stuff that horse racing dreams are made of.

Owner KEVIN DREW of Chatham purchased a filly from the first crop of millionaire Dynamic Sky at the 2019 Canadian Premier Yearling Sale for $15,000 from his neighbour, Brian Wright. It was the first Thoroughbred Drew had every purchased.

Now that filly, JILLI MARIE, is 2 for 2 and a stakes winner, taking the Nov. 14 South Ocean Stakes with aplomb under the expert training eye of Katerina Vassilieva and jockey Steven Bahen.

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This is a keen 2-year-old as Jilli Marie broke a bit awkwardly at the start of the 6 1/2 furlong race for $100,00. She was quickly put into the race by Bahen and chased the speed from the rail before splitting fillies and bursting away, winning by 1 1/2 lengths in 1:16.57 over quite a fast Tapeta surface.

She earned a 69 Beyer Speed Figure from Daily Racing Form.

Donver Stables and Josie Carroll’s Dejas Too (Ami’s Holiday) rallied for second and Heste Sport Inc.’s Meet the Sopranos finished third.

Favoured Sunsprite was fourth after a difficult trip as she was steadied and checked hard for half the race and then closed late.

Jilli Marie is from the stakes-placed mare Jilli’s Cape by Cape Canaveral. She has 5 winners from 5 starters. Breeder Wright is a small breeder who has done well with homebreds such as Society’s Tiger.

Vassilieva was winning her 4th of the year from 15 starters in a year in which many stables have had smaller numbers and not as many racing opportunities.

“It’s incredible,” said Vassilieva about the win. “I am so happy for [Kevin Drew]. It’s his first Thoroughbred and she was his first winner and now he has won a stake.”

The trainer liked her filly before she won her debut on Oct. 3 at 13 to 1.

“Training up to her first race I really liked her, the way she was working and doing everything right. I knew I had a pretty nice horse going into the first race.”

Vassilieva, with 67 career wins in her 10th year of training, is certainly an attentive horseperson.

“I try to treat them all as individuals, give them 100 percent of the best care and hope that they turn up in the afternoons.”

More Saturday

Wow. GOLDEN AMI was worth the wait.

Ivan Dalos’ 4-year-old filly by Goldencents out of Sovereign Award winning mare Galloping Ami (Victory Gallop) did not make her career debut until March 13 at Gulfstream Park in Florida but it was a stunner as she won by 6 lengths on the dirt with a 77 Beyer Figure.

Trained by Josie Carroll, Golden Ami was working as a 2-year-old in 2018 but it was a year until she started prepping again last fall.

Saturday the filly reappeared in an allowance race on the Tapeta at Woodbine and cantered to a 5 1/2 length win in a hand ride under Rafael Hernandez in a jaw-dropping 1:14.53 for 6 1/2 furlongs, just 9/100 off the track record. She earned a 94 Beyer.

Golden Ami is a half-sister to Dalos’ champion Ami’s Gizmo and Grade 3 winner Ami’s Flatter.

In Race 7, Larry Johnson’s Irish-bred TRUE VALOUR, a Grade 2 and 3 winner in 2019 in California at 1 mile on turf and 3 time winner overseas for Qatar Racing, won his first Tapeta race, a 6 1/2 furlong allowance/optional claiming in race in 1:15.09 for 6 1/2 furlongs for trainer Graham Motion. He posted a 91 Beyer Figure.

Motion, who has now 4 of 15 starts with his shippers to Woodbine in 2020 (all saddled by Renee Kierans), has only had the classy 6-year-old horse by Kodiac for three races including a 7th in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill.

Race 6 was a maiden allowance/optional for 2-year-olds and it was CRUDEN BAY who overcame a slow start to fly to a 7 1/4 length win for owner Michael Lay and trainer Don MacRae. The bay colt ran in 1:16.90 for a 64 Beyer. Bred by Spring Farm, Cruden Bay comes by his talent honestly as a full brother to stakes-winning filly Sav and a half-brother to top older horse Cooler Mike. He is by Big Screen from Executive Affair by Bold Executive.

More than $7 million was wagered on the good card at Woodbine.