GRADE III, $200,000 FLORIDA OAKS WINNER: BACIAMI PICCOLA
Winning trainer Brian Lynch: “She came over in mid-summer and was a little slow to get adjusted to the way we do things over here, so we sort of played with her through the fall. Julien and her started to hook up once we got to Palm Meadows, and he spent a lot of time with her. She is a very difficult filly to ride and can be temperamental, but they seemed to get along fantastic.
“If you have a bigger stable, you are able to gauge them a little off your better horses, and she held her own with them. So we thought we would take a shot and run her here in the Oaks. It’s wonderful when a plan comes together; you look like a genius some days and like a fool other days, but today was a good day. She is very gutsy and we have a lot to look forward to. To get the mile-and-a-sixteenth after she had never been beyond six furlongs shows she has an abundance of talent.”
Winning jockey Julien Leparoux: “We’ve been working with her quite a bit and we always liked her. Today she broke good, and I took her back and saved ground around the turn. I knew if I found some room in the stretch, she was going to kick nice for me. We had questions before the race because this was her first time to go that far, but she competed. She has some guts.”
John P. Terranova, II, trainer of runner-up Enjoy Yourself: “I thought that was a pretty nice group of turf fillies, and (Enjoy Yourself) came into the race training so well. She never gave up. We just had a new shooter come out of Europe for Brian Lynch and crew, and it looked like a nice race time-wise. I’m really happy with our horse—I think she has a nice future.”
