TRES SEIS' THREE GREEN LEAVES Takes Ford Juvenile Championship
CYPRESS, CA - NOVEMBER 3, 2007 - Winning his fourth Challenge Championship race on Saturday evening, Paul Jones, saddled J. Garvan Kelly and Nancy Yearsley's Three Green Leaves in the $150,000 Ford Juvenile Challenge Championship (G2).
By the leading second year sire TRES SEIS, Three Green Leaves is out of the Dashing Val mare Sky Glow. Sky Glow is out of Kelly and Yearsly's Blue Hen mare Sky Chicks, dam of stakes winners Dutch Schultz, Spike It And Fly, Rule The Skies and stakes runners Lite Up The Skies and Hit The Heights.
Ridden by Cody Jensen, who earned his third victory of the night, Three Green Leaves pulled away by ½ length at the finish over Robert Gutke's Gomez Palacio. Stoli Powered was third.
Sent off at 3-1 odds, Three Green Leaves picked up a $75,000 paycheck while covering the 350 yards in :17.458. She has now won two starts from seven attempts, and boosted her earnings to $84,454. She entered the race by finishing third in the Ford California Juvenile Challenge (G3).
"She's always been a slow breaker -- she's a big, long-legged filly," said Jensen. "She's always just taken so long to get up and going, but she's always finished nicely. But tonight she just rocked out of there like a little horse. I couldn't believe her start. I was like, 'Where has that been all year?'
I knew she was such a strong finisher that I was hoping we could just stay close to the nine horse (Gomez Palacio)," he continued. "About 200 yards into it, my filly really got in gear. She was perfect tonight. She's always been really good, a real professional, she just hasn't always been a quick breaker. Tonight she got an excellent start."
"She hasn't broken like this all year," observed Kelly. "When I saw the way she got out tonight, I had a feeling they wouldn't get her. When she got out like that, I thought it was all over for everybody else.
"When you look at the filly and how she's made, she's a big long-striding filly and she's just matured and grown into herself during the year," he said. "I think she's going to be a very tough 3-year-old."
Three Green Leaves is the first stakes winner for the 9-year-old Sky Glow. Her connections plan to point Three Green Leaves toward the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity (G1) trials.
Completing the field was Gomez Palacio, Stoli Powered, JW A Royal Trip, Looks Royal, WRS Leading Edge, Cantwait and Queens Strawfly.
