Lugo and The Isabel Astray make a good team

The Isabel Astray didn’t get to the races until she was almost four years old, at Monmouth Park in September of 2022, and she broke her maiden in her first try. Coming up to yesterday at Tampa Bay Downs, she had only raced five more times, without a victory, but with two seconds and a third to her credit at Mountaineer Park, all under Carlos Lugo.

Lugo was aboard again yesterday in a mile and 40-yard test that came off the grass, and he guided the 5-year-old Gone Astray mare to her second score. He took her away third at the break, but The Isabel Astray dropped back to seventh on the rail early. Heading down the backstretch, Lugo got her in gear three wide and she began picking off rivals one by one. By the time they hit the top of the stretch, the mare bred by Inversiones Fl was moving into the lead, and she ran away and hid in the final sixteenth, 3 1/4 lengths in front.

The Isabel Astray boosted her record to 2-2-1 in seven starts, and the check for $12,425 raised her earnings to $33,180. She paid $14.60 and received a 74 Equibase speed figure for the effort, best of her seven races.