Perfect Story Passes Two Turn Test At Gulfstream
By: John Gaver III

(February 5, 2003) - John Oxley's Perfect Story, a half-sister to champion and Horse of the Year Point Given, improved her record to a perfect two-for-two as a 3-year-old, as the chestnut filly won a mile and 70 yard "two other than" allowance race at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 5 by two lengths over stakes winner Final Round. Never Fail finished third in the field of six 3-year-old fillies.

Trained by John Ward, Jr. and ridden to victory by Edgar Prado, Perfect Story covered the distance over a "fast" strip in 1:41 2/5 and returned $2.80, $2.20 and $2.10.

Sent off as the 2-5 favorite, Perfect Story broke keenly and was into the bit early making her first start around two turns, but jockey Edgar Prado had the daughter of Tale of the Cat in a choke-hold from the outset, forcing her to rate a length in second off of Maria's Mojo, who carved out a quarter-mile in :23 flat and a half-mile in :47 flat. Three furlongs from the wire, Prado let Perfect Story out a notch and she spurted clear of a rallying Final Round by two lengths at the quarter-pole.

Prado rode his mount aggressively from the eighth-pole to the wire and she responded with a strong finish, not allowing Final Round, who was only six lengths off the win in last fall's Grade II Alcibiades Stakes at Keeneland, to make up any significant ground in the lane.

With the win, Perfect Story improved her record to three wins and a pair of seconds from five lifetime starts. While she has never started in a stakes race, her connections, who paid $975,000 for her as a weanling at Keeneland in November of 2000, have always held her in high regard.

"She's good. She's the real thing," Ward. told Daily Racing Form's Mike Welsch. "She ought to join the list of grade one winners. She's the kind of horse that loves to race."

No definitive plans have been made for Perfect Story's next start. Her local stakes options at Gulftsream Park are the mile and a sixteenth $150,000 Davona Dale Stakes (GII) on Feb. 23 or $200,000 Bonnie Miss Stakes (GII), which will be run on Mar. 14. The $100,000 Forward Gal, also run on Mar. 14, would be another option, but trainer Ward would have to turn his charge back to seven furlongs to contest that affair.

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