Stephanie’s Kitten with an amazing late run edged past Stopshoppingmaria to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf
John Velazquez’s role of the dice in the final stages of the race helped the homebred Ken and Sarah Ramseys’ Stephanie’s Kitten out finished pace setter Stopshoppingmaria late in the race to win the Grade 2, $909,000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs on 4 November, 2011.
Just when it looked like Stopshoppingmaria had victory at hand after breaking from the gate briskly under jockey Javier Castellano and leading the 14 runners for the most part of the race weakened in the final strides, to give way to Stephanie’s Kitten. The margin between win or lose was extremely narrow in the race.
Stopshoppingmaria set the fractions by going the opening quarter mile in 24.57 seconds, half mile distance in 50.55 seconds and the six furlong marker in 1 minute and 15.71 seconds.
There were many runners in contention after the final turn as Sweet Cat who was on Stopshoppingmaria’s tail for a longer period came in dashing from the outside. On the other hand Royal Bonnie under Cornelio Velasquez made a sweeping move on the turn.
From the backstretch another contender was also looking dangerous, Dayatthespa was homing in with intent, as too was Hard Not To Like who came up with a strong bid as they entered the stretch.
The daughter of Kitten’s Joy, out of Unfold the Rose by Catienus, Stephanie’s Kitten settled in fifth in the early part of the race, and remained in the mid pack until the three sixteenth pole when she decided to split her rivals to get a clearer vision of the home.
She was amazing," Velazquez said. "As soon as I asked her to go in between those other two horses, she responded right away. It's nice when you can ride horses like that. It makes it easy for us. She's game for anything I ask her to do."
With a furlong from home, Stephanie’s Kitten decided to go all out and attack Stopshoppingmaria’s lead, and like a silent assassin she inched closer with immense pace and prevailed by three quarters of a length over the leader.
The winning time for Stephanie’s Kitten for the 1 mile race was 1 minute and 38.80 seconds.
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