Brightwork ‘s 2024 debut was delayed after she slipped and fell in the paddock before the Aug. 3 Test Stakes (G1), but she made a triumphant return Aug. 31 in the $200,000 Prioress Stakes (G3) at Saratoga Race Course.
The six-furlong Prioress, for 3-year-old fillies, looked like a showdown between last year’s Adirondack (G3) and Spinaway (G1) stakes winner Brightwork and Rigney Racing’s recent 11 1/4-length Saratoga maiden winner Two Sharp . That is exactly how it played out, as Two Sharp and rider Junior Alvarado grabbed the early lead, with Brightwork and rider Luis Saez pinned to their outside, just a head back after a half mile in :45.92.
When Saez asked Brightwork to go on at the quarter pole, the Outwork filly responded with added intensity. Two Sharp, making her third lifetime start for trainer Phil Bauer, hung tough on the inside despite sticking on her left lead through the lane.
Brightwork held a half-length lead at the eighth pole, but had to fight all the way to the wire to defeat a stubborn Two Sharp by a neck. JR Ranch’s Miuccia , by second-crop sire Mitole , finished another three-quarters of a length back in third to earn her first graded placing for trainer Gustavo Delgado.
The race was run through a light rain shower, and the final time for six furlongs over a dirt track rated good was 1:10.86. Brightwork paid $7.10 to win as the second choice.
Brightwork improved her record to five wins from seven starts, with earnings of $611,376. She is 5-for-5 sprinting.
“We were just very blessed that we had another opportunity to get another win at Saratoga. This was not the original plan, but God had his plans and things happened for a reason,” said winning trainer John Ortiz. “She looked like she was tiring very hard at the end. She dug in. It didn’t surprise me how much heart she had at the end. It was good to see such guts in an athlete like that. It was just a beautiful race.”
Outwork, a grade 1-winning son of Uncle Mo , has five crops of racing age. He stood at WinStar Farm for a fee of $10,000 in 2024. Brightwork was bred in Kentucky by Wynnstay and H. Allen Poindexter. She is out of the unraced Malibu Moon mare Clarendon Fancy , who is a full sister to unraced Catch the Moon , dam of grade 1 winner and sire Girvin , plus grade 3 winners Midnight Bourbon , Cocked and Loaded , and Pirate’s Punch .
Meanwhile, Alvarado was very pleased with the effort from Two Sharp, a promising 3-year-old filly by Twirling Candy .
“It’s only her third start, and being on the rail when (Brightwork) came to her outside, she never wanted to switch leads for me,” Alvarado said. “But she was a fighter. She wasn’t giving up on me and I couldn’t make her switch leads, but I tried to just get to the wire first. She was very game …
“Today, we probably just got beat because of experience of the horse that beat us. We can for sure move forward from this race, and I’m still happy with the way she ran today.”
