Recepta (inside) finishing second in the Matriarch Stakes (gr. I) at Del Mar – © Benoit Photo
NYRA Press Release: Grade 3 winner Recepta goes after her first Grade 1 victory in Saturday’s $500,000 Diana, a race her trainer, Jimmy Toner, has won three times over his lengthy career.
Toner’s most recent Diana victory came in 2012 with Winter Memories, 14 years after he won with the filly’s dam, Memories of Silver. In between, Toner captured the 2004 edition with Soaring Softly.
All three of Toner’s previous Diana winners were bred or co-bred by longtime owner John Phillips. The same goes for Recepta, a 5-year-old Speightstown mare co-owned by Phillips and Pam Gartin.
“You don’t realize it. You go to work every day and do your stuff, take care of this, take care of that. I was reading and saw Billy Mott won the race four times and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty neat. Four times,'” Toner said. “Then I got to looking and said, ‘Wait a minute, I’ve won it three times. That’s not bad.’ It’d be nice if we could do it again.”
Recepta won the De La Rose last summer in her only previous try over the Saratoga turf. She went on to win the Grade 3 Noble Damsel in her next start and has been winless since, finishing second by a head in the Grade 1 Matriarch last fall and again by 2 ¾ lengths in the Grade 1 Just a Game June 11, her most recent effort.
“The last time she was just second-best, but she came out of it good and we’re ready to go. She couldn’t be doing any better. She’s nice, good, fresh, happy. We’re looking forward to running,” Toner said. “I just backed up on her this week. She’s been running hard and it’s hot but she’s really happy. She’s sharp.”
Toner said Phillips’ 3-year-old homebred filly Time and Motion, most recently second behind Catch a Glimpse in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational July 9, is doing well and will make her next start in the Grade 2, $300,000 Maker’s Mark Lake Placid August 21.
“She came out of her last race super. She ran a great race that day; we got beat by a champion. There’s no disgrace in that,” Toner said. “We’re looking forward to trying her again in the Lake Placid.”
Earlier this year, Time and Motion won the Memories of Silver and Wonder Again, both stakes named for Grade 1 winners Toner trained for Phillips.
“We’ve been lucky this year,” he said. “It’s been a pretty special year for us so far.”
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