What, me Hold Still? 'Tipped' filly wins in good time

Hold Still was a bargain-basement purchase at this year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. April auction of 2-year-olds in training.

The time she posted Monday in winning an allowance race at Puerto Rico's Hipodromo Camarero suggests she was better than the $18,000 price she commanded at auction.

Hold Still (Include-Zitlaly, by Emancipator) rated well off a moderate pace of 23.57, 47.17 and 1:12.97 in the field of imported 2-year-old fillies, then stormed home on the rail to win by a fast-widening six lengths over Golden Seas. Her time for seven furlongs was a pretty fair 1.25.67. Finishing third, beaten 11 1/4 was twice Puerto Rico graded stakes-placed La Kamikaze.

The show filly and Hold Still have taken turns finishing ahead of one another at Camarero since being imported. Each has beaten the other in prior allowance races and La Kamikaze finished second in the recent Clasico Dia de la Raza-G2(PR) at a shorter distance, when Hold Still was fourth.

Hold Still has now won three of six starts, with a second (to La Kamikaze in allowance company). Her other off-the-board finish was in her debut.

I recommended Hold Still when she sold as Hip 696 at OBSAPR. She's by a decent sire of useful racehorses in Include, and is the first foal out of Zitlaly, a stakes-placed winner of $212K who made 46 lifetime starts. While that alone was enough to make me ignore an average breeze time of 10.3 for an eighth (which was hardly a bad time), I also like the fact that she is inbred 4x4 to the outstanding Hoist the Flag, and 5x5x5 to his sire, the great Tom Rolfe, with the extra strain coming via the blacktype-winning mare File, dam of Zitlaly's paternal grandsire, Forty Niner.

Granted, Hold Still has collected her three victories at Camarero, not at Saratoga, but I suspect several American racing stables would be glad to have a 2-year-old filly capable of 1:25 and change over seven furlongs and looks better the more ground you give her; especially one they could've bought for twenty grand.

It will take a couple of days for the full chart information and earnings to be exported from Puerto Rico. (Does a PDF have to pass through customs or what?) I'll update her earnings and record in the complete list of my 187 juvenile sales tips of 2010 at that time.