Joel Rosario to ride Charm the Maker in the Las Virgenes Stakes
Jockey Joel Rosario has never ridden the newly turned three-year-old filly, Charm the Maker, but after last Saturday the veteran jockey can’t wait to take her out on the track for the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes for 3-year-old fillies to be held at Santa
Anita Park’s fast main dirt track over a distance of 1 mile on 3 March, 2012, a contest to be sorted out between eight 3-year-old fillies.
“Rosario worked her and he loved her,” Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally said. “I just told him to let her run the last part, just chirp to her, don’t hit her; run the last quarter of a mile.
“His agent (Ron Ebanks) called me Sunday morning and said, ‘My rider loves that filly.’”
Trained by Ronald L. McAnally for owner Deborah McAnally, Charm the Maker is coming off a fourth place finish in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes over the Santa Anita Park’s dirt course going over a distance of 1 1/16 miles.
Never won on dirt, Charm the Maker was running on the surface for the second time in her career, but the surface wasn’t the problem this time. Coupled with jockey Rafael Bejarano for the first time, who took over the filly from jockey Garrett Gomez, didn’t
have an ideal break from the gate as the filly bobbled in the beginning of the race.
She couldn’t come to grips with the situation afterwards as she finished 4th on the day to winner Willa B Awesome and Killer Graces in second.
The top two finishers of the Santa Ysabel Stakes will lock horns yet again in the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes, and Charm the Maker will have an opportunity to set the score right this time around.
“In the Santa Ysabel, she got mud in her trachea and on top of that, she was trying to get her air and bled,” McAnally said. “Saturday she wasn’t blowing when she came back. We scoped her and everything was clean.”
The Kentucky bred daughter of Empire the Maker, out of mare Charm the Giant by Giant’s Causeway, Charm the Maker will be sent off at 5 to 1 for the Las Virgenes Stakes.
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