Ready To Venture steps up to win Seaway

Kingman mare Ready To Venture stepped up to Graded company on Sunday (17th September) claiming the Gr.3 Seaway Stakes at Woodbine.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 18th September 2023:

Not seen in Canada since an allowance win last May, the five-year-old spent much of last summer trying the turf with various success along the Mid-Atlantic region. Transitioned over to the all-weather surface heading into autumn, the Lael Stables homebred rattled off back-to-back wins in stakes races to cap her four-year-old season.

Drawn inside, the 7-1 shot broke neatly but was outsprinted by nearly half the field as the group left the chute and joined the main track. Comfortably placed mid pack as a pair of dueling longshots, Vantarsi and Hai Bobbi, sorted things out up front, Ready To Venture enjoyed an inside trip with several runners around to her outside. Into the far turn through a half in :45.48, the Michael Stidham trainee made a joint move with race favorite Ticker Tape Home to start to reel in the dueling leaders who split open to leave a gap turning for home. Angled out to take advantage, she rallied outside of a game Vantarsi and had no real threat close to home as only Millie Girl was closing a safe distance back.

"It's not a great place to be," said winning jockey Rafael Hernandez, of having the rail post. "But when everything goes good, we ended up in the winner's circle. It doesn't matter how you start, it matters how you finish. At the three-eighths, I said, 'Man, I have horse.' I know my horse was running down the lane and I said whoever is coming is going to have to have run fast to get us."