Hungry Island and Winter Memories developing a bit of a rivalry after the Lake Placid Stakes
The 3-year-old filly Hungry Island who is trained by Claude McGaughey for owner Emory Hamilton, went on to cause an upset in the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga, when she defeated the highly favoured Winter Memories over a distance of 1 1/8 miles
on 21 August, 2011.
Claude McGaughey’s Hungry Island was coming off four wins out of her last four starts, gave the confidence in her trainer to say that his filly will run her best race, but what he didn’t count on was that she would actually go on to defeat the Grade 2 Lake
George Stakes winner Winter Memories.
Sent as the 2 to 5 favourite, Winter Memories did not have the best of trips and that wouldn’t have mattered any way because the winning filly, Hungry Island, spurted home showing her skills to get the better of her opponents by some margin,.
She defeated Kathmanblu by 5 ¼ lengths under Alex Solis. What all this has done is, that Hungry Island winning the way she did at Grade 2 Lake Placid stirred up a little rivalry between Winter Memories and Hungry Island.
It has prompted the two trainers to say that it is likely that the two fillies will be seeing a lot more of each other.
At the moment both female runners are pointed towards the Grade 1 Garden City Stakes that will be held at Belmont Park on 17 September, 2011, if everything goes according to plan, the fans will see another clash between the two.
There is another possibility of Winter Memories meeting Hungry Island, and that would be at Keeneland on 15 October, 2011, in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge.
McGaughey said that Hungry Island going on to win the Lake Placid was certainly a big step up in her career, especially finishing at the top of some respectable female runners, and Winter Memories was one of them.
It will be interesting to see, who outlasts who in the next few race in couple of months time, for the time being Hungry Island has one up over Winter Memories and it will stay that way until they meet again.
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