Aye Eye Comes from Nowhere

[snaffle1987]

Did anyone catch Aye Eye winning over the weekend at Saratoga under Javier Castellano? Trained by Joe Orseno. Got left in the gate, ran far, far back until the final turn when he started blowing by rivals. Don’t think I have seen anything like it

Aye Eye is a two year old by Essential Quality out of Divine Queen by Divine Park. He is based at Monmouth. He was a 140,000 yearling and then a $45,000 two year old. I wonder how many phone calls they have fielded to buy him

AYE EYE Comes Out of Nowhere to Win at 26-1 in a CRAZY Finish - YouTube

[MorganSercu]

Wow! That was incredible!

[OzarksRider]

I don’t usually follow this forum, but that video reminded me of Secretariat. I remember how Secretariat ran last in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and then blew past the field on the way to setting records.

[trubandloki]

Wow, just wow.

[HorseLover65]

That was truly impressive! Gave me chill bumps

[Kyrabee]

I wonder what the jockey thought or did. I saw him use the whip once or twice but when he fired, he fired! It was like all of a sudden he decided he liked to RUN.
He took the announcer by surprise.

[Maythehorsebewithme]

Amazing. And so green throughout–the start (“Wait, what?” or “What, wait”) and the stretch run (“I will go here, no here, no here is best”).

The announcer pronounced his name as if it were AI (as in artificial intelligence). I thought perhaps it should be eye-eye (as in a nautical Aye). Anyone know?

[snaffle1987]

Should be Aye-Eye like Aye-Eye Captain

[snaffle1987]

Essential Quality could be one to watch. His debut runners are two year olds this year and he has sired Chopsticks; Brad Cox’s exciting two year old this year.

[endlessclimb]

Seemed like his running style was a bit different, his head and neck were more up and more motionless to my rookie eye. That power was wild though!

[Texarkana]

That was fun!

Here’s the chart:

SAR080825USA6.pdf

[OverandOnward]

@Maythehorsebewithme

Amazing. And so green throughout–the start (“Wait, what?” or “What, wait”) and the stretch run (“I will go here, no here, no here is best”).

That’s the impression I had as well. He was all over the place until he finally saw the clear way and just plunged through.

Looked like plenty of horse, not a hard win for him considering all the time he spent dithering and dodging. “Ima sposed to run? Run now? Through here? K I can do that.”

[findeight]

Thanks for the chart…no idea they had race conditions like last sale under 60k. Learned something.

[LaurieB]

@findeight

Thanks for the chart…no idea they had race conditions like last sale under 60k. Learned something.

The “auction maidens” as they’re called are relatively new, having been around for about 5 years. Not all tracks have them, and each track sets the dollar amount needed to qualify for entry. I think they’re a great idea. There’s a movement afoot to get racing secretaries to write similar races–but with a cap on the stud fee of the sire, which I would love to see happen.

[findeight]

Seems sensible to help fill races and create opportunity.