NEITHER trainer Will Walden nor jockey Jose Ortiz planned on Pipsy going to the lead in the $200,000 Grade 2 Intercontinental Stakes at Saratoga on June 5th, but when the filly exploded from the gate there was no turning back.

“She’s very fast,” Ortiz said. “Will asked me if somebody goes, he would like to see her behind, but she broke so well, I couldn’t do that.”

Ortiz was sitting chilly through a quarter mile in :21.74 as Pipsy led the field of nine into the turn of the five-and-a-half-furlong turf stakes. The four-year-old Irish-bred was doing it so easily, Walden wasn’t sure what would happen in the stretch, especially when favourite Future Is Now made a rail move and pulled even at the 16th pole.

“The way she did the first half mile with her ears pricked and the way he came to the quarter pole, the knees weren’t going and the hands weren’t going,” Walden said. “He was motionless, so I thought he was dead, waiting for (Future Is Now) to pass, or he had a lot left. And thank God it was the latter.”

Bred in Ireland by Noel Finegan, the daughter of Kodiac boosted her career earnings to $489,751.

“Horses, if you give them that break from 3 to 4, they can either stay the same or they can really take a jump forward,” Walden said. “We’re just blessed she’s taken a jump forward.”

Woodford Thoroughbreds paid 700,000gns ($928,489) for Pipsy at the 2023 Tattersalls December Mare Sale after she began her career with two wins in three starts for Ger Lyons. She won her U.S. debut in the Grade 3 Soaring Softly at Aqueduct last May.