Look it up! Bayakoa goes to Go Google Yourself
Oaklawn Park media release
HOT SPRINGS, AR (Monday, Feb. 17, 2020) – Jay Em Ess Stable’s Go Google Yourself wore down 6-5 favorite Whoa Nellie in the final strides to win Monday’s $200,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3).
Go Google Yourself reeled in favored Whoa Nellie to take Oaklawn Park’s Bayakoa Stakes. Coady Photography
Making her first start since a runner-up effort in the Falls City Handicap (G2) at Churchill Downs last November, Go Google Yourself broke on top, but allowed Lady Suebee to take over through early fractions of :23 4/5 and :47 3/5 for the first half mile, while she settled just off the pace. Pippin Stakes winner Whoa Nellie, who also raced near the front, gained the lead entering the stretch, but once the winner was angled out for the drive, she was able to wear down her rival for the victory by a neck in a final time of 1:43.65 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast track. Cairenn finished third.
“It was a tough race,” trainer Paul McGee said. “I didn’t get confident until she made the lead, actually, right there at the wire. She’s a game, hard-trying filly and always has been. The fact that we ran down that other filly (Whoa Nellie), I was really proud of her. Although it was a six-horse field, it was a tough six horses, I thought. A lot of stakes experience among the horses in there. Google, she’s just a classy, hard-trying filly. That’s all you can ask for.”
“We had to run hard to wear down a nice filly,” jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. said. “We had a lot of confidence in her. I got a little nervous inside the eighth pole because (trainer) Larry Jones horses can be tough to wear down. Our filly is a multiple stakes winner and she got the job done today.”
Go Google Yourself, a 5-year-old Into Mischief mare, improved her record to 7-5-3 in 19 starts and has now earned $639,625, including victories in Ellis Park’s Groupie Doll and Churchill Downs’ Locust Grove. McGee said that the Fair Grounds-based mare will either return for the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) March 14 or the $1 million Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) April 18.
