All Is Well Proves Perfect in Steward's Cup Juvenile Fillies

Original article written by Marzy Dotes posted 12 years 1 week ago

When she first set foot on the racetrack, All Is Well set the racing world on fire breaking her maiden by nine lengths, scorching the dirt oval in the process. She took that same formidable style to the $2 million Grade I Steward’s Cup Juvenile Fillies and captured that race by five widening lengths over Safety in Numbers. The bay filly with the flashy star romped the 1 1/16 miles in the slop at Hot Springs Park in 1:43.80 stamping herself at the top if her class.

She’s bred and owned by Stephen Skaggs who sponsors a highly popular yearling auction every year but he held onto this homebred who looked like a winner from the start. Her sire is his own stallion, Promise Not to Cry was picked up by Skaggs at auction for $1.555 million and placed highly in stakes during his career. At stud, the son of Fighter Jet and Our Love (which makes him a half brother to the likes of Don’t Mess and Depths Of The Sea) has been trying to make his mark and this brazen filly will help do that. Her dam is the very well known mare All Sleep Well, who was purchased by Eric Nalbone for over $22 million is a daughter of two Hall of Famers in Saga and Wonder. She had a decent career on the racetrack but her value is for breeding after those days are done and All Sleep Well produced a stakes winning son by East before visiting Promise Not to Cry.

So All Is Well definitely has the royal bloodlines to go along with her fiery spirit and speed. She dawdled in the mornings during her workouts opting to take her time completing, thus saving her true efforts for the racetrack. She did just that winning both of her starts before the Juvenile Fillies and launching herself as one of the favorites in the championship style race. But she had high quality competition that would share the starting line with her in that race.

Safety in Numbers bred and owned by Janey Adams is a dark bay daughter of the now pensioned Out of Kindness and the stakes winning mare Desert Wind. As a yearling, she sold for $1.451 million at auction and began training for her debut. She started out at the mile distance and placed third before breaking her maiden at a route next time out. She took command of the Okibi Senshi Stakes and defeated Brave by a half length to prep for the Juvenile Fillies.

Jolene Danner entered a pair of finely bred fillies into the race. Compositions is a dark bay daughter of Danner’s Long Island Classic winner Literature and another daughter of Wonder named More who also produced Boann who was second in the Steward’s Cup Distaff. Compositions looked hot from the start winning her first two starts including the Bodega Bay Stakes less than three weeks before the Steward’s Cup. Her other entry Sonata is by newly hot sire Stay Awake and out of her famed broodmare, Lore. Though Broodmare of the Year Lore is more known for the sons she produced, this time she had a daughter and Sonata broke her maiden the second time out. She had just less than two weeks turnaround before heading into the Juvenile Fillies.

Emma Lochran purchased Brave for just over $1 million at auction. She’s a tiny but well built daughter of the famed Braveheart and California mare, Significant who has a nice daughter The Ville who just won the Indiana Oaks.
Excitement built even as rain drenched the track as the horses went to the starting gate, some of them quite frisky keeping the outriders busy. After they were lined up in the starting gate, the undefeated Itsallcleartome broke to the lead first followed by an eager Compositions and Brave. All Is Well tucked in behind them under Jordyn Springer’s patient guidance.

As they hit the backstretch, All Is Well slipped back into fifth place more than happy enough to allow Itsallcleartome to extend her lead by 1 3/4 lengths over Compositions and Brave. The three top horses maintained their positions going into the far turn while All Is Well hung out in sixth place as they approached the home stretch.

There All Is Well launched a huge bid that made it appear as if the rest of the field were standing still as she swept down the lane with huge powerful strides, Springer guiding her home. Safety in Numbers also made her move sweeping past the horses in front of her to finish second by a ½ length over Compositions who finished a game third.

All Is Well waltzed into the winner’s circle to receive her accolades and stamped her reputation as the top juvenile dirt routing filly. She’s not been nominated to the Triple Crown series so it’s not clear where this talented racer will show up next as her juvenile season winds down and she prepares to return to battle next year.

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