Weekend Wrap-Up by Mike Ahrens: July 17 - 19, 2020

It was cloudy most of the day, but the sun started to peak through about the time of the Rainbow Juvenile Stakes and then the clouds parted nearly completely by the time of the Rainbow Futurity. However, there were no rainbows to be seen in the sky, but some great two year olds did show up on the track.

In the Juvenile the fastest qualifying time among the ten competitors came from For The Irony, who was the 2-1 favorite. Under Sergio Becerra for trainer Sergio Ibarra, this black gelding broke on top, drifted a bit but was clear to prevail by a length and a quarter. This trainer-jockey duo would also team up later with the post-time favorite for the Futurity in Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday was coming in with a three for three record including a win in the Ruidoso Futurity. Perhaps the hard races caught up with this brown colt though, as he battled for the lead then gave way late. Another undefeated runner, however, did prevail, and did so with a strong finish to edge away by three quarters of a length. Whistle Stop Cafe, a gray filly trained by Blane Wood and ridden in all four of her starts by Ricky Ramirez, now has two stakes victories to her credit including this Grade 1.  "In the trials she wasn't familiar with this rail, she'd been at Remington, so she wasn't familiar with that inside," said Ramirez. "Today, in the middle of the racetrack, she just went straight. When she got out good I knew we were in a good situation, and sure enough about halfway down the track she just rebroke and opened up on them." Wood said "She had a perfect race, she broke great and just improved her position." Regarding the All American Futurity he said "The distance won't hurt her. We'll x-ray her here in a few days, give her a few days rest, go over her with a fine-tooth comb and make sure we don't have any issues."