Mendelssohn Juvenile Wins at Keeneland
It was a 2-year-old winner for Mendelssohn at Keeneland on Friday when Saturday Flirt (2f Mendelssohn x Dragic, by Broken Vow) broke her maiden on debut for Wesley Ward.
She broke slowly in the 5 ½ furlong turf race and Irad Ortiz Jr. let her settle over five lengths off the leader early on with just a few horses beat. Sent a few paths wide around the turn, she went even wider into the stretch and showed off a big turn of foot from there.
Catching the leaders as they raced into the final furlong, she pulled away once she took the lead to win by 1 ¼ lengths as a heavy favorite.
The filly was bred by Wesley Ward, who also owns and trains her out of the multiple stakes-placed Dragic, who Ward also trained. This is the second winner out of Dragic alongside Munnings’ Alibi Ike.
Dragic is one of five stakes performers out of the Grade III winner Letgomyecho. That mare’s other foals also champion Echo Zulu, Grade I winner and Coolmore stallion Echo Town, and Grade III winner J Boys Echo.
This is the 154th Northern Hemisphere-foaled winner for Mendelssohn, the best of any third crop sire and over 40 winners more than any other North American third crop sire and over 20 more than any other Northern Hemisphere third crop sire.