IRISH MISSION is tough in the La Prevoyante – Gulfstream Park photo
IRISH MISSION, the champion 3yo filly and grass mare in Canada in 2012, would not let any gal past her in the stretch run of the La Prevoyante Stakes (Grade 3) on Saturday at Gulfstream. Robert Evans’ long winded chestnut mare could race once more before being retired to the breeding shed.
Previously trained by Mark Frostad, who guided the daughter of Giant’s Causeway – Misty Mission by Miswaki to her championship year, Irish Mission is now trained by Christophe Clement. She won the Grade 3 Glens Falls at Saratoga in August for her first win since the trainer change. She is 6 for 28 in her career and has earned $1.27 million. In her latest race, Irish Mission was 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
Her time for 1 1/2 miles was 2:35.95 – a Beyer Figure of 92.
from Gulfstream media:
Coming down to the wire in Saturday’s La Prevoyante Handicap (G3), trainer Christophe Clement knew he was going to earn his fifth win in the race, but which horse he would win it with may have been less certain.
Clement’s Irish Mission, who broke from the 12-post in a full field of 14, raced three-to-four-wide throughout the 1 ½-mile contest and made a strong bid at the eighth pole to take the lead in the stretch. But another Clement starter, Tabreed (GB), was quickly gaining. That mare, far back in the early going, saved ground along the inside before circling outside and rallying. A Clement exacta was imminent, with the order to be determined. At the wire, it was Irish Mission who hung on for a game ¾-length victory under jockey John Velazquez. Tabreed was a neck ahead of Photo Call (IRE).
Irish Mission, a 5-year-old daughter of Giant’s Causeway, was making her first start since finishing a disappointing 11th in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) and possibly the last start of her career. The mare, who won Saratoga’s Glens Falls Stakes (G3) in 2014, is scheduled to be bred in the spring of 2015.
“She ran great,” Clement said. “Let’s enjoy this a little bit for the moment. [Owner Robert Evans] is here, and we’ll make a decision later on, but she’s a top class mare. It took me four or five months to understand her, but at her best, she can compete with most fillies, especially going long.”
Irish Mission sat behind a slow pace early. Bohemian Dance (IRE), under Luis Saez, brought things nearly to a crawl in the early going, setting fractions of 52.93 seconds for a half-mile and 1:19.65 for three-quarters. But Clement wasn’t concerned.
“It was the same for all of us,” he said. “As long as we all compete and it’s the same for all of us, I’m okay with it. They finished very well.”
“When they win, you don’t care too much,” he added.
The pace, and a consequently bunched field, didn’t allow Velazquez to position Irish Mission where he ideally may have wanted in the early going, but he let the mare run where she was most comfortable, confident she would run to her multiple graded stakes winning form.
“The pace was slow and I couldn’t drop in to where I wanted to be, but since we were going so slow, I kept her where I was. I didn’t want to be in her mouth too much. After that, I just kind of waited down the lane, because I know she’s going to wait, and she responded when they came to her.”
Irish Mission, whom Clement considers a distance specialist, notched her second win at the grueling 1 ½-mile distance in the La Prevoyante, having previously won at the distance in the 2012 Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine. That 2012 season, in which she also won the Woodbine Oaks and finished second against males in the Queen’s Plate Stakes, earned her Canadian Sovereign Awards as the nation’s Champion Grass Mare and Champion 3-year-old Filly.
In 2014, Irish Mission joined Clement’s string. After finishing a well-beaten seventh in Belmont’s Beaugay Stakes (G3) in her debut for the stable, she rebounded with five straight stakes placings: a third in the Sheepshead Bay (G2) at Belmont on May 24, runner-up efforts in the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup Invitational and Monmouth Park’s Matchmaker (G3), her win in the Glens Falls (G3), and a show effort in the Rodeo Drive (G1) at Santa Anita. That string of performances earned her a spot in the Breeders’ Cup.
A victory in the La Prevoyante could give Irish Mission a storybook ending to what has been a successful racing career spanning four years and two countries. While that still remains an option, Clement has not completely closed the door on the possibility of one more start.
“Maybe she can run once more in a race like the Very One (G3, to be run at Gulfstream on February 21, 2015),” he said. “The other filly (Tabreed) is going to quarantine I think in January. She’s going to be bred to Australia. It’s fun. It’s a fun race. I’ve been lucky in this race in the past. It’s fun to train good horses.”
Irish Mission was bred by Sam-Son Farms and bought by Evans as a yearling for $375,000.
The Canadian horses in the W L McKnight (Grade 3) were not as effective as Avie’s Quality was 11th after a sluggish start and Midnight Aria, the Queen’s Plate winner of 2013, was 13th of 13 after tracking the pace.
DIVINE OATH, a 3yo, was the winner by 1/2 a length for Let’s Go Stable. The Broken Vow colt’s 3rd dam is the great Personal Ensign.
MIDNIGHT TRACE, debut winner at Tampa Bay
Ontario bred Midnight Trace, by Scat Daddy – Dream Date Diva by Gulch, won his career debut at 1 mile on the grass at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday. Bred by James and Janeane Everatt and Arika Everatt-Meeuse and Tim Meeuse, the 2yo won by 1 1/4 lengths for West Point Thoroughbreds in 1:37 2/5.
The winner was a $57,000 yearling purchase and bought back for $50,000 as a 2yo in training.
