My Miss Aurelia showing her mettle and winning the Adirondack Stakes at Saratoga
Right after breaking her maiden last month, the Kentucky bred 2-year-old filly, My Miss Aurelia, shows her magic at Saratoga in the Grade 2, $150,000, Adirondack Stakes, holding off the determined run of Millionreasonswhy and narrowly winning the 6 ½ furlong
event by a neck.
Trained by Steve Asmussen for owner, George Bolton, My Miss Aurelia took on a field of four other 2-year-old fillies and extended her record to two of two by nailing the 6 ½ furlong dash in 1 minute and 17.01 seconds.
The odds of the daughter of Smart Strike, My Miss Aurelia, was considered to be the favourite before the Saratoga sprint because of her hard earned maiden special weight win, also at Saratoga, over a distance of 5 ½ furlongs.
Among the rivals, there was Stopshoppingmaria, who took a nasty stumble in the beginning of the race but pulled herself together to finish the sprint in third place, the winning time of the race being 1 minute and 3.59 seconds.
Julien Leparoux was aboard the filly in both races, and this time experienced a perfect break from the gates around the pair and a smooth start right from the outset, but the filly got challenged by the early pace maker, Bellacourt, and the first duel took
place on the outside.
The two fillies exchanged the lead while going swift past the quarter pole marker and half mile marker, making fractions of 22.20 seconds and 45.32 seconds.
The determined filly, Millionreasonswhy, had a bad break and consequently shooting out of the gates last, but the filly made ground and joined the leaders.
Millionreasonswhy, under John Velazquez, made his move from the outside, and after the bend, it became a two-horse race as Bellacourt gave up.
It was all the way down the lane between the two fast and furious fillies, and under John Velasquez's encouragement, Millioreasonswhy responded and never gave way to My Miss Aurelia to truly break free and take a good hold of the race.
At the sixteenth pole, Leparoux exceeded the left handed whip count to which My Miss Aurelia responded in fine fashion and dug it out to keep Millionreasonswhy at bay in the final strides to edge past her and win the dash by a mere neck.
The race showed that My Miss Aurelia is a tough filly, because it took a lot to come off a 5 ½ furlong maiden breaker and compete it like she did.
The race was set up in a way that she was challenged throughout the race and she responded in a fine manner.
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