Ivanavinalot Rates, Beats My Boston Gal In Bonnie Miss
By: William F. Reed

HALLANDALE, Fla. (Mar. 14, 2003) - After exceptionally strong fall meetings at Keeneland and Churchill Downs, trainer Carl Nafzger roared into 2003 with what seemed to be a powerhouse stable bristling with candidates for both the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.

Today, however, he's 0-for-48 at the Gulfstream Park meeting.

The Texas native fired a double-barreled shotgun in the $200,000 Bonnie Miss Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Mar. 14. He was hardly disgraced, finishing second with My Boston Gal and fifth with Westerly Breeze.
But his fillies also were no match for Ivanavinalot, the even-money favorite who stalked My Boston Gal's pace until the sixteenth pole, when she swept to the lead and drew away for a solid 1 3/4-length victory.

"I've never ridden her before, but she ran perfect for me," said jockey John Velasquez. "She's all heart. When I asked her for a run at the three-eighths pole, she responded."

So Ivanavinalot now joins a deep and talented group pointing for the 129th Kentucky Oaks on Fri., May 2. The Nafzger fillies certainly can't be discounted, although My Boston Gal must prove that she can handle top class fillies over the Oaks' mile and an eighth distance.

Among the other Oaks standouts are the unbeaten Storm Flag Flying, who won last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies for trainer Shug McGaughey; the Bob Baffert-trained duo of Composure and Santa Catarina; Yell, who defeated Ivanavinalot and My Boston Gal in the Davona Dale on Feb. 23; Lady Tak, who's being pointed for the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland; and Mezzo Soprano, an impressive recent winner in Dubai.

And let's not leave out a couple of fillies who ran impressively in Friday's seven-furlong, $100,000 Stonerside Forward Gal Stakes on the Bonnie Miss undercard.

The winner, Midnight Cry, is trained by Kenny McPeek, who was second in last year's Oaks with the favored Take Charge Lady. Owned by the Barrister Stable, she received a masterful ride from jockey Edgar Prado, who had only three horses beaten in the early going. But Prado moved her three wide heading into the turn and she surged to the lead heading down the stretch.

"She's a bigger, stronger filly than she was just a few months ago," said assistant trainer Helen Pitts, who saddled Midnight Cry's in McPeek's absence.

"She's been training phenomenally here. Edgar said she was just on cruise control the whole race."

But almost as impressive was Final Round, who came flying down the middle of the track to get up for second in the final sixteenth of a mile. Ridden by Pat Day, Final Round stumbled at the start and was last after a half-mile.

But when Day asked her, she responded with a move that had to make trainer George R. "Rusty" Arnold excited about the future. In only her second start of the year, she stamped herself as one for Oaks handicappers to watch.

As did Ivanavinalot two races later.

Kathleen O'Connell, who trains Ivanavinalot for owner-breeder Gilbert G. Campbell, has been bold and unorthodox in her game plan for the dark bay daughter of West Acre out of the Deputy Minister mare Beaty Sark.

After winning five-of six-starts as a 2-year-old, all at Calder, she was shipped to Santa Anita for her first race of the year on Jan. 26, when she finished second in the $250,000 John Deere Sunshine Million Oaks at Santa Anita. Then she was shipped back to Florida to face a tough group in the Davona Dale, where she was no match for Yell.

But she took a major step forward in the Bonnie Miss.

"This is her first time going a mile and an eighth, and she's only had three weeks between races," said trainer O'Connell. "It's been a tough month for her, but she's handled it well. I was happy with the way the race set up, with us on the outside tracking the speed."

The speed was My Boston Gal, who was dazzling last year in winning her first three starts, one at Keeneland and two at Churchill Downs. She ran a dull fifth as the favorite in the Davona Dale, but Nafzger discovered a throat problem that was quickly remedied.

In addition, he replaced jockey Calvin Borel, who had ridden her in all her starts, with Day, the all-time Churchill Downs riding king. He took My Boston Gal to the lead and controlled a modest pace. But when the real running started, Ivanavinalot had far more left in the tank.

The other Nafzger-trained horse, Westerly Breeze, was third in mid-stretch, but hung and finished fifth under jockey Rene Douglas.

At zero-for-48 at Gulfstream, the Keeneland spring meeting probably can't come soon enough for Nafzger.

Native Kentuckian William F. Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 43 years and has missed covering the Kentucky Derby a mere two times since 1966. He has been a high-profile sports writer in Kentucky for the Commonwealth's two largest daily newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader and was a national columnist for Sports Illustrated, covering among other sports, Thoroughbred horse racing and college basketball. Reed currently pens a column for the Louisville Sports Report and covered Kentucky Derby 128 for kentuckyderby.com. He will be filing frequent installments for CDSN's (Churchill Downs Simulcasting Network) websites throughout 2003.

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