Strong Incentive, under a patient ride by Alan Garcia, made her added-money debut a winning one in Saturday’s $150,000 Jammed Lovely Stakes, at Woodbine.
Trained by Chad Brown for Klaravich Stables, Inc. and William H. Lawrence, Strong Incentive was also making her Woodbine and synthetic surface debut in the seven furlong sprint for Ontario-bred sophomore fillies.
Bred by Spendthrift Farm, the bay daughter of Warrior’s Reward-G G’s Dolly settled off the early pace of Green Doctor who set splits of :22.69 and :45.15 under mild pressure from Peggy O.
Garcia urged Strong Incentive up the rail into third position through the turn, and then angled out, full of run, to surge past Green Doctor to secure a 3 1/4-length win. Green Doctor stayed on for place by 2 ¾-lengths over Peggy O. Strong Incentive covered seven furlongs in 1:22.36.
Garcia, who piloted Green Doctor to a second-place run last time out in the Ruling Angel Stakes, made the correct decision to switch to the relaxed Strong Incentive in the Jammed Lovely.
“She broke okay and then was relaxed at the back,” said Garcia. “She was so comfortable to the end…at one point I asked her to go and she took off. She did it so easy today.
“I had plenty of horse. Galloping out, I couldn’t even pull her up.”
Strong Incentive, a $200,000 purchase at the 2014 OBS Sale, graduated on the turf at Saratoga on August 31 and arrived at the Jammed Lovely from a second-place finish in a grassy allowance sprint at Belmont Park on October 8.
Assistant trainer Jason Desilets was at Woodbine to saddle Strong Incentive with Brown busy at Aqueduct having sent out Goldy Espony to a victory in the Grade 3 Long Island Stakes just moments before the Jammed Lovely.
Desilets was confident of a good performance from Strong Incentive in her Canadian debut.
“We brought her up (to Woodbine) a few days before and she trained superior over the track. We had a good feeling that she’d run good over the track and she did,” said Desilets.
Strong Incentive banked $90,000 in victory while improving her record to 2-1-0 from 6 career starts.
She paid $9, $3.90 and $2.70, combining with Green Doctor ($4.60, $3.10) for a $36.30 (2-3) exactor. A 2-3-5 triactor (Peggy O, $2.90 to show) was worth $89.50.
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