Lambeau Lady Makes the Leap from Maiden to Winner Sunday
Lambeau Lady Makes the Leap from Maiden to Winner Sunday
Debut Filly One of Three Victories for Meet-Leading Rider Russell
LAUREL, MD – Madaket Stables and Paul Farr’s Lambeau Lady, a 2-year-old half-sister to juvenile turf stakes winner Hangover Saturday, made her career debut a successful one with a popular and professional front-running two-length triumph Sunday at Laurel Park.
The third winner of the day for jockey Sheldon Russell and first for his wife, trainer Brittany Russell, Lambeau Lady ($3.80) ran 5 ½ furlongs in 1:04.98 over a fast main track in the maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies.
“It’s a big relief because I’ve always loved her,” Brittany Russell said. “I never try and say anything to the owners, but a couple times I let it slide that I really liked this filly and then I’m like, ‘Why’d I do that? Then you feel so much pressure. Thank goodness she didn’t make me look silly.”
By Twirling Candy out of the Johannesburg mare Margarita Friday, Lambeau Lady was purchased in June for $100,000 out of Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium. She had been working steadily since mid-August at Laurel for her unveiling.
“She’s always been one of my favorites from the time she walked in,” Russell said. “She was working real forwardly and she just had a few little funny quirks about her that we needed to sort out and it seems like it’s paid off that we’ve taken our time. She looks great, and she ran great.”
Lambeau Lady, the 4-5 favorite breaking from Post 2, outran 22-1 longshot My My Girl to the lead and held it while being pressed through a quarter-mile in 22.72 seconds and a half in 46.45. Lambeau Lady began to edge away after going five furlongs in 58.69 and had plenty left when My My Girl took another shot at the leader in deep stretch.
“She’s rapid. You can see on her work tab,” Brittany Russell said. “It’s not really my style to have one work in 47 and change. We don’t really mean to do that in the morning, but she’s just forward. She just has gas and she’s always been really good from the gate.”
Russell was unsure whether it would be too quick to run Lambeau Lady back in Laurel’s final stakes for juvenile fillies this year, the $100,000 Gin Talking at seven furlongs and $100,000 Anne Arundel County at about 1 1/16 miles Dec. 26.
“We’ll probably give her a little time, it’s kind of our style. To be fair, I think she’s going to be a better turf horse, which is kind of exciting,” she said. “It’s sort of exciting to know that she can run that well on the dirt. I think we can have some options with her next year. We’ll just kind of regroup and see how she comes out of this and go from there.”
Notes: Meet-leading rider Sheldon Russell registered a hat trick Sunday aboard Triple Titos ($6.80) in Race 2, Automate ($3.60) in Race 4 and Lambeau Lady ($3.80) in Race 5. Both Triple Titos and Automate are trained by Anthony Farrior … There will be a jackpot carryover of $9,136.30 in the 20-cent Rainbow 6 when live racing returns to Laurel Thursday, Dec. 10. Multiple tickets with all six winners Sunday returned $96.
