Hard Spun’s three-year-old daughter Antoinette went wire-to-wire and held on to win by a half-length in the $500,000 Saratoga Oaks Invitational on August 16th at the Spa.
Trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Johnny Velazquez, Antoinette broke well and cleared the field to make the lead early in the mile-and-three-sixteenths turf event. She turned in a gutsy performance digging in through the lane to stay in front by a half-length over runner-up Stunning Sky at the wire.
It was the second career Black Type victory for Antoinette, having won the one-mile Tepin Stakes at Aqueduct in December of last year. She had reeled off four straight third-place finishes in 2020, hitting the board in the G2 Fair Grounds Oaks, Gardenia Stakes, G3 Wonder Again, and most recently the G1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga on July 18th.
Bred in Kentucky by Godolphin, Antoinette is the second foal out of four-time Graded Stakes winner Shuruq (Elusive Quality). A daughter of G2 winner Miss Lucifer, Shuruq is a half-sister to 2020 G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest winner Space Blues (Dubawi).
Antoinette is one of 81 career Black Type winners for Hard Spun. His six individual Black Type winners in 2020 include four-year-old filly Hard Not To Love, winner of the G2 Santa Monica, and four-year-old colt Spinoff, recent winner of Saratoga's Alydar Stakes. Hard Spun's current two-year-olds include ten-length Churchill debut winner and TDN Rising Star Beautiful Memories.
