Include Betty draws off in Mother Goose

Include Betty was well clear of her Mother Goose rivals (NYRA/Chelsea Durand/Adam Coglianese Photography) Brereton C. Jones and Timothy C. Thornton’s Include Betty (Include) was trying out her sixth track from 10 career starts when going in Saturday’s $300,000 Mother Goose S. (G1) at Belmont Park, but once again proved her versatility when pulling away in the stretch to score by 3 1/4 lengths under jockey Drayden Van Dyke. The young, but crafty, Van Dyke settled Include Betty in the rear of the 10-filly field as a pace battle emerged up front between Hot City Girl (City Zip) and Embellish the Lace (Super Saver) through swift splits of :22 3/5, 45 2/5 and 1:10 4/5. Pleasant Tales (Tale of Ekati) and Wonder Gal (Tiz Wonderful) ran in tandem just behind and to the outside of the leading duo. The blistering pace took its toll on the leaders, who couldn’t hold on as the rest of the field swamped them heading into the stretch. Include Betty had angled out of her ground-saving rear spot to be about four wide rounding the turn and swung out to be in the five path flying into the lane. The chestnut miss emerged as a clear leader and powered home for trainer Tom Proctor to finish 1 1/16 miles over the fast dirt in 1:44 3/5. “It was a perfect trip,” said Van Dyke, who picked up his second Grade 1 win, and first on dirt, under a steady rainfall at Belmont. “I knew they were going fast up front and I knew this long stretch should really help her out, she makes that nice last run and I knew it’d work out just perfect for her. I just had to make sure that I kept pulling my goggles down so I could see where I was going.

“I don’t think she’ll have any problems stretching out further. Me and Tom
(Proctor) were saying she’s a filly that really doesn’t like to be hit a whole
lot, so it’s more just getting along with her and keeping her happy.”

Include Betty returned $12.80 as the 5-1 fifth choice. Wonder Gal and Chide (Blame) hit the wire together, with the former taking
second by a head-bobbing nose on the line as the 7-2 favorite. Pleasant Tales
filled out the superfecta another 2 3/4 lengths back while Hot City Girl and
Eskenformoney (Eskendereya) dead-heated for fifth.

“I thought she ran well,” trainer Leah Gyarmati said of Wonder Gal. “For a
minute there in the stretch, it looked like we may be nowhere. She really showed
a lot of guts running it out for second.”

Include Betty earned her first Grade 1 victory in this spot, adding it to a
10-4-2-1 resume that already boasted scores in the Fantasy S. (G3) and Suncoast
S. from earlier this year. The three-year-old miss ran fifth while trying the
turf in the Florida Oaks (G3) in between those latter two wins, finished eighth
in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) on May 1 and entered the Mother Goose off another
rallying run which was good for second in the May 15 Black-Eyed Susan S. (G2) at
Pimlico.

Saturday’s winner’s share boosted Include Betty’s career earnings to
$543,030.

Bred in Kentucky by Jones and Lavin Bloodstock, the chestnut filly sold for
$42,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. She is out of the winning Betty’s
Solutions (Eltish), making her a half-sister to Grade 1 runner-up Blonde Fog
(Divine Park) and listed-placed Francesca d’Gorgio (Proud Citizen), the latter
of whom is the dam of Group 1-placed listed heroine Amazonas (Cape Cross).

Betty’s Solutions is herself the daughter of dual Grade 3 victress Betty
Lobelia and a half-sister to the dams of Grade 1 queen My Trusty Cat (Tale of
the Cat), Grade 3-placed Entrustment (Forestry), and Grade 3-placed multiple
stakes winners Somethinaboutbetty (Forestry) and Petunia (Lil E. Tee). She’s
also a half-sister to the granddam of multiple Grade 2-placed Eskenformoney.

Also of note in this female family are Grade/Group 1 scorers Personal Hope
(Storm Bird), Frozen Fire (Montjeu) and Feuerblitz (Big Shuffle) as well as the
Grade 2-winning mother-son duo of Crowned (Chief’s Crown) and Best of Luck
(Broad Brush).

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