Ortiz Pilots Technical Analysis Gate To Wire In Lake Placid

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – Sensing a lack of pace on paper, jockey Jose Ortiz smartly sent even-money favorite Technical Analysis to the lead from the gate and never let a horse past before crossing the wire victorious in Saturday’s $200,000 Lake Placid Stakes (G2) at Saratoga.

Technical Analysis was away well from post 2 and raced inside Spanish Loveaffair through opening fractions of :24.68, :50.03, and 1:14.80. The Chad Brown trainee appeared to blow the final portion of the far turn, drifting out a handful of lengths, but Ortiz corrected her and pointed her straight toward the wire.

Technical Analysis drew off to win the 1 1/16-mile yielding inner turf route by 3 1/2 lengths in 1:46.49. Weather forced the race off the outer turf course, over which it had been originally scheduled to be run.

“We knew there was no speed in there, so our options were limited,” Ortiz said. “We didn’t want to get stuck being behind a slow pace. The turf was pretty soft, but this filly is bred in Ireland and she liked it. I’ve ridden her before on (good) turf and I knew she was going to handle it well. I knew it would be to our advantage.”

Runaway Rumour rallied for second by a 1/2-length over Ego Trip, with Spanish Loveaffair fading to finish 3/4 of a length further back in fourth.

Illiogami and Lovestruck completed the order of finish in the field of 3-year-old fillies.

Technical Analysis’ win was her second straight following the Lake George (G3), held at a mile over the same course last month. Purchased for $258,109 as a yearling, the Irish-bred Kingman daughter’s record improved to 6-4-0-1 with $298,200 earned.

“The more we work with this horse, she just keeps getting faster and stronger and bigger,” Brown said. “I can see that she’s willing in her works and I just don’t want to take anything away from her. Too often, we’ve been caught in these paceless races where sometimes we have the best horse and it blows up on you. So, if my horses have some speed, like this one, I’m going to send them out there.”

Technical Analysis returned $4.20 to win, $2.40 to place, and $2.10 to show. Runaway Rumour brought back $4.30 to place and $2.90 to show. Ego Trip paid $2.80 to show.