Leinan overhauls favoured Mechaya to take the Glorious Song Stakes at Woodbine
Awesome was Josie Carroll trained 2-year-old bay filly, Leinan, when she handled the seven furlong race brilliantly to outrun the heavily favoured, Mechaya, to win the $155,236 Glorious Song Stakes over Woodbine’s All Weather track on 11 November, 2012.
Ridden by jockey Luis Contreras, Leinan clocked the seven furlong distance in 1 minute and 23.73 seconds at odds of 7 to 1, as she was entered in the juvenile filly event as a $3,000 supplement entry.
The 3 to 5 favourite of the Glorious Song Stakes, Mechaya, came storming out of the gate, and jumped to the lead right from the outset, and the Southern California shipper opened up a six length lead.
At the same point in the race, Leinan was not hurried by Luis Contreras in the early parts of the race, and the duo was content to stalk the leader.
Mechaya was able to carve fractions of 22.13 seconds for the opening quarter mile and 45 seconds flat for the half mile, but the filly was going to concede the lead to Goldstryke Glory, who snatched the lead in the stretch and by then Leinan was getting
into contention, and advanced well to out finish Goldstryke Glory by a single length.
In the end, it was a comfortable victory for Ready’s Image filly, out of Green Desert mare Golden Mirage, who runs under the banner of Sapara, James and Alice.
Prior to the Glorious Song Stakes’ win, Leinan was coming off two back-to-back second place finishes in allowance races, and in both these races jockey Patrick Husbands rode Leinan, but in the Glorious Song he was aboard Mechaya.
Carroll made the change and was pleased with the jockey’s and his runner’s performance, after also winning the Grade 2 Autumn Stakes.
"I expected her to jump out of there," said Carroll. "I asked Luis to ride her aggressively to the finish as she gets a little overconfident to slacking a little bit. When the speed went out there and she was relaxed, I was happy to see the way she was
running. She was very comfortable with them and when he asked her to take off, she took off."
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