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Stephanie's Kitten gets right trip in Flower Bowl
As expected, Viva Rafaela was bowling along on the front end through splits of :24 3/5, :50 1/5, 1:14 3/5 and 1:38 2/5. Starstruck and Alterite, another of Brown's trio, were her nearest pursuers. Abaco was nestled in midpack early, and advanced on the inside to race as a team with Stephanie's Kitten. Viva Rafaela tried to spurt away decisively entering the stretch, but Stephanie's Kitten was already kicking into gear. Stamping her class, the favorite drove to a 1 1/4-length decision in a final time of 2:01 on the firm inner turf. The five-year-old repaid her loyalists with $4.40 to win. "She got a beautiful trip, and I'm really proud of this filly -- she deserved to get a good, clean trip," Brown said. "That's the third race in a row for us that I felt she ran terrific. She was a little unlucky in the Beverly D. and Diana (with Frankie Dettori aboard), and this time Johnny got away from the gate really well and gave her a beautiful trip. The filly did the rest." "It doesn't get any better than that," said Velazquez, who last rode Stephanie's Kitten in the Just a Game. "We broke well enough, and I wanted to make sure I got a nice position going into the first turn. Once we got that, I was pretty pleased with where I was and kind of bided my time. When I asked her, she responded right away, and made me look really good." Abaco, who had to peel outside for running room, finished well to catch Viva Rafaela by a neck for second. "She was second best," Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said of Abaco. "I thought she ran good. I thought maybe around the turn she got shuffled around a little bit, but she went on and finished well. "If the pace had been a little quicker, it would have probably helped the winner, too, but we might not have had to ease up that far on her. I am satisfied with the race she ran. I hate to lose, but she ran a good race.'' "She broke good and she had a perfect trip," Abaco's rider Jose Ortiz said. "Johnny had a lot of horse, too, so I kept him there. When he moved he took advantage, and when I moved it cost me a little bit but I thought she ran a fabulous race. There was no pace and I tried to put her close, but I didn't want to take her out of her game. She did what she could and she tried 100 percent." The winner's stablemate Watsdachances got up for fourth, giving Brown the top and bottom of the superfecta. Next came Starstruck, Tannery, Alterite and Strathnaver. Maximova was scratched. Stephanie's Kitten boosted her bankroll to $2,274,104 from her 18-8-2-4 line. Now in her fourth season of racing, the Kentucky-bred bay has been among the leaders of her generation. For her original trainer, Wayne Catalano, she captured the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Alcibiades, the 2012 Lake Placid and Edgewood and the 2013 Just a Game and Churchill Distaff Turf Mile. Her five career stakes placings include the Ashland, the past two runnings of the Diana, and the aforementioned Beverly D. Out of the unraced Catienus mare Unfold the Rose, Stephanie's Kitten counts as her second dam 1995 Del Mar Oaks heroine Bail Out Becky. The latter is also the ancestress of Peruvian champion Fly Lexis Fly. This is the further family of Grade 1-winning millionaire and international sire More Than Ready. Stephanie's Kitten traces to the blue hen *La Troienne. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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