Sombeyay adds Canadian Turf S. (G3) to resume
February 29, 2020
Sombeyay became Into Mischief’s 10th stakes winner of 2020 on Saturday when the 4-year-old colt captured the $150,000 Canadian Turf S. (G3) at Gulfstream Park.
A winner of the 2018 Sanford S. (G3) on the main track, Sombeyay switched to grass four starts back and has a win and two seconds on the lawn. His overall mark stands at 3-4-0 in 11 outings, with earnings of $342,990 for Starlight Racing.
Sombeyay broke well and made his way to the inside rail entering the first turn. Gidu (IRE) ran off to a seven-length lead in the first half-mile, with Sombeyay in third. The pacesetter began to slow on the final turn, and Sombeyay ran by him in upper stretch, then held off a calvary charge to win by a half-length in 1:32.44 for the mile on the firm turf.
The winning time was less than one second from the track record.
“The last one (second in a Jan. 26 allowance) was a good comeback race that we felt like it was good enough to come back in a stake, and we’ve been targeting this race since then,” said winning trainer Todd Pletcher. “He ran pretty well on the dirt [earlier in his career]. He actually ran a little better than he was training. But the Into Mischief’s seem so versatile, we worked him one day on the turf, and we were like, wow, he moved forward. And it seems like he’s improved a bit as a 4-year-old.”
Sombeyay was bred by J. D. Stuart and Mueller Farms, Inc. and sold to Starlight for $230,000 at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling sale.
Pedigree Notes from the TDN: Sombeyay is one of his sire’s 27 graded stakes winners to date. Sombeyay’s dam Teroda is the dam of a 2-year-old Kitten’s Joy filly that made $200,000 as a Keeneland November weanling and was most recently bred to Spendthrift stallion Bolt d’Oro.