VELVET VORTEX (f, 3, Complexity–Sweet Pistol, by Smart Strike) was bet down from a morning line of 9-2 to jump as the 13-5 favorite while making her career debut at the Fair Grounds Saturday afternoon and got the better of a final-furlong tussle with second-time starter Velvet Devil (Kantharos) to graduate in strong fashion. Drawn three, the $375,000 Keeneland September purchase bounced beautifully, but was just outfooted to the front by the rail-drawn Velvet Devil, second after leading into the final furlong of her lone start to date over course and distance Jan. 20. Settled just off the pacesetter’s flank through sharp fractions of :21.65 for the quarter and :45.32 for the half-mile, the less-experienced Velvet runner chased outside Velvet Devil into the final furlong, grabbed her stubborn rival about a sixteenth of a mile from the finish and edged clear. It was a chasm of 8 1/2 lengths back to the well-meant Atarah (Bolt d’Oro) in third. The winner is a half-sister to ‘TDN Rising Star’ Faiza (Girvin), the 2022 GI Starlet Stakes winner before adding the GIII Santa Ysabel Stakes and GII Santa Anita Oaks in 2023 en route amassing earnings of $672,000. Herself a $325,000 KEESEP yearling, Sweet Pistol–whose MGSW/GISP dam Pomeroys Pistol (Pomeroy) also produced MGSW sire Thousand Words (Pioneerof the Nile)–was purchased by the late Brereton C. Jones for $33,000 at the 2016 Keeneland November Sale. Owing to Faiza’s exploits, Sweet Pistol’s now 7-year-old daughter Kirtan (Cairo Prince) fetched $235,000 in foal to Girvin at KEENOV in 2023, while Faiza herself was hammered down to Godolphin for $4 million at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Sweet Pistol is also the dam of Velvet Vortex’s 2-year-old full-brother Cocked Pistol, a $550,000 KEESEP purchase by Mike McCarty at KEESEP last fall, and a colt foal by Not This Time. Sales history: $375,000 Ylg ’23 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $33,000. Click for the Equibase.com chart and VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-e Five Racing Thoroughbreds LLC; B-Brereton C Jones (KY); T-Brad H Cox.
