Maryland Thoroughbred

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Sweet Goodbye says hello to Barbara Fritchie with impressive What a Summer Stakes score
William R. Harris’s Sweet Goodbye pressed the pacesetters and powered by them down the lane to capture the $70,000 What a Summer Stakes for older fillies and mares at Laurel Park on Saturday, Jan. 9.

Sweet Goodbye, a 5-year-old Maryland-bred daughter of Maryland sire Louis Quatorze, has won eight of 12 starts, including five stakes for earnings of $304,072. In the What a Summer, her closest foes at the finish were Royale Michele, who finished a length behind the winner, and third-place finisher Cuvee Uncorked, the 2-1 betting favorite.

The top two are expected to return to Laurel on Feb. 13 to compete in the $150,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap-G2. Royale Michele is the defending winner of the seven-furlong sprint.

“She’s all heart and all talent,” Grove said. “The Fritchie has been the plan since Maryland Million was over. I gave her some time and thought going six (furlongs) off the layoff she would be fresh, and she showed it today.”

J.D. Acosta rode Sweet Goodbye, who completed the six-furlong What a Summer in 1:11.02.

“This is a great opportunity to prep for the Fritchie because there was a lot of speed and she would get dirt kicked in her face,” said Acosta, who has been aboard the mare in all 12 starts. “But she likes to chase the horses in the morning, so having all that speed in the race helped us big time. As soon as I asked her she took off and responded pretty good. Everything was perfect.”

Grove is best known for conditioning a pair of other talented distaffers: Stephen Quick and Chris Feifarek’s homebred Silmaril, who won the What a Summer Stakes in 2007 and 2008 and finished her career with 12 stakes victories at five different distances for $1,032,973, and her closely related stablemate Lexi Star, who retired with more than $600,000 in earnings.

“She is probably more like Lexi than Silmaril but she is a nice filly,” added Grove. “She has class and talent. She didn’t put it together as a 4-year-old, but I was offended when I walked out of the paddock [after saddling] and she was 8-1 on the board [her final odds were 6-1 – fifth choice in the field of seven]. It wasn’t like she was off form.”

Sweet Goodbye, the final foal from Harris’s grand producer Thirty Eight Steps (by Thirty Eight Paces), is a half-sister to stakes winners Five Steps ($413,746), Deer Run ($408,530) and Norstep ($229,845).

Grove will be well represented on Presidents’ Day weekend. Last weekend he captured the $70,000 Native Dancer Stakes with Greenspring and will point him to the $150,000 General George Handicap (Grade 2) on Feb. 15.