Haveyougoneaway takes Ballerina to sweep Spa sprints for fillies and mares

Haveyougoneaway made it a clean sweep of Saratoga's graded sprint offerings for fillies and mares with a 10-1 upset of Saturday's $500,000 Ballerina (G1).

Not only did the five-year-old daughter Congrats add the Ballerina to a prior win in the Honorable Miss H. (G2), she received an automatic entry into the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita in November.

Tracking outside and no more than a couple lengths off a pace of :23.39 and :45.54, Haveyougoneaway made a five-wide bid at the top of the stretch and wore down the weary Paulassilverlining and even-money favorite Carina Mia inside the final furlong to win by a half-length.

Owned by Gary Barber and Sequel Racing, the Tom Morley trainee paid $22 to win after completing seven furlongs in 1:21.63 over a fast track. By the Moon rallied between rivals late to finish second, a length ahead of the three-year-old Carina Mia.

"There was a question mark about [the pace] and I said to [jockey] Johnny [Velazquez] in the paddock, 'I don't know whether they're going to go a rattling good pace here. There's no signed-on speed. There's fillies that have been prominently placed before.' This filly, she's good enough to win going six [furlongs] and she's got plenty of gears; you can be tactical with her," Morley said. "We knew she'd stay; she'd only just got there in the Honorable Miss and she ran a very good second to Bar of Gold going a mile at Belmont. The seven-eighths is absolutely her wheelhouse and Johnny had her in the right spot the whole race. It was a great ride and a great result.

This was the fourth start for Haveyougoneaway since joining the Morley stable. Previously trained by Allen Milligan, the mare previously captured the $50,000 Flashy Lady at Remington Park last season, and the $100,000 American Beauty and $100,000 Spring Beauty at Oaklawn earlier this term. She also placed in six other stakes for Milligan.

With Morley, Haveyougoneaway has won three times. After a second in the $200,000 Critical Eye for New York-breds in May, she came back to win the $100,000 Dancin Renee, also for state-breds, before commencing her graded stakes sweep.

"Now obviously we'll have to plot our route to California carefully," Morley said. "She's run three times in pretty quick succession. She ran at the back end of Belmont and won a stake, came up here and won opening week and then came back and won the Ballerina in just under four weeks. She's had three big efforts in relatively quick succession, so we might just train up to the Breeders' Cup."

Bred by Andy Beadnell and Susan Beadnell, Haveyougoneaway has now earned $897,425 from a line of 26-11-4-6.

(Teresa Genaro photo)