Scalable resumes her winning ways in $175K Listed Turnback the Alarm
Repole Stable’s Scalable, winless since late March after opening her 5-year-old season with back-to-back stakes victories, swept past rivals including favored leader Donor Advised entering the stretch and opened up to a dominant 9 1/4-length triumph in Sunday’s Listed $175,000 Turnback the Alarm at Belmont Park.
The 1 1/8-mile Turnback the Alarm for fillies and mares 3-and-up was the third of five stakes worth $925,000 in purses on an 11-race program co-headlined by the Grade 3, $200,000 Bold Ruler and Grade 3, $200,000 Forty Niner.
Ridden by John Velazquez for trainer Todd Pletcher, both Hall of Fame horsemen, Scalable covered the fast main track in 1:47.31 to earn her seventh career win from 22 starts and fifth against stakes company, boosting her lifetime bankroll to $908,728.
“Very nice,” Velazquez said. “She really has started to be one, this one. She was always knocking on the door the whole time, finally got one like this [dominant win] and it was very nice."
Donor Advised, sent off as the 3-5 favorite in a field scratched down to five horses, broke alertly but was content under jockey Manny Franco to settle in second as 16-1 longshot Standoutsensation emerged with the lead and held it through an opening quarter-mile in 23.48 seconds on the fast main track. Velazquez kept Scalable in the clear four-wide, outside Yes It Tiz and Boutwell Time.
The half-mile went in 46.18 with the order unchanged as Donor Advised crept closer along the rail, then moved up alongside the pacesetter following six furlongs in 1:10.26. Sitting comfortably in third, Velazquez gave Scalable her cue and the daughter of late Champion Speightstown responded rounding the far turn and straightening for home with a full head of steam.
Velazquez set Scalable down for the drive and she quickly reeled in Donor Advised, who had taken the lead at the top of the stretch, and drew clear impressively to register her first win since the 1 1/8-mile Listed Top Flight on March 29 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
“That's what I was hoping would happen,” Velazquez said of Donor Advised racing under early pressure. “When it happened, it was perfect. I was close to the two of them, making sure they didn't get away too easy, I waited until the quarter-pole, she switched down the lane and went on nicely."
Donor Advised was runner-up behind 2025 3-Year-Old Filly Champion and Saturday’s winner of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, Nitrogen, in the Grade 2 Beldame last out over course and distance September 25. She held second over Yes It Tiz followed by Standoutsensation and Boutwell Time. Grade 1-placed Snowyte and stakes-winner Pink Ruby were scratched.
“The six [Standoutsensation] never gave me a breather. She was the other horse with speed, so I had to hold my position. I'm already up there, I can't take back,” Franco said. “She had something left and held on for second.”
Scalable won the Ladies in February prior to the Top Flight, each at 1 1/8 miles, before finishing off-the-board in her next three outings. She returned off a brief freshening with an improved performance to be second in the one-mile, 70-yard Philly Special on September 19 at Parx Racing.
Bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, Scalable was a $200,000 purchase at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and is out of the Tapit mare Passion Flower, making her a half-sister to the Pletcher/Repole Stable-campaigned multiple Grade 1 winner Stopchargingmaria.
Scalable made the grade in the 2024 Grade 3 Monmouth Oaks at Monmouth Park.
“She’s a super mare,” Pletcher’s assistant trainer Stu Hampson said. “These longer distance marathon-type races are perfect for her; she finds herself naturally a bit closer. She broke really sharp today and Johnny [Velazquez] worked out a perfect trip. There was probably a bit more pace signed on than it looked on paper, but Johnny found a perfect spot, and she took care of the rest.
“As long as she's sitting in a spot where she doesn't have too much to overcome, she has a big heart and lays it down every time,” he added.
Live racing resumes Thursday with an eight-race card at Belmont Park. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
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