Phipps Stable’s homebred PLEASANT HOME (Seeking the Gold) posted an easy 5
1/4-length win on Saturday in the $153,200
Bed o’ Roses Breeders’ Cup H. (G3) as
the 8-1 fourth choice. With Cornelio Velasquez holding the reins, the Shug
McGaughey charge was content to run near the back of the seven-horse field as
Traci Girl (Quiet American) and Cativa (Sir Cat) traded pacesetting duties
through fractions of :22 4/5, :45 and 1:09 4/5. Traci Girl slowly started to
pull away and looked like she would be first under the wire, but Pleasant Home,
who had picked off horses through the stretch, suddenly loomed to her outside
and easily drew off over the good Aqueduct dirt to complete a mile in 1:36 3/5.
Pleasant Home paid $19.60, $10.20 and $3.80 to her faithful backers while
keying the $138.50 exacta and $403 trifecta (4-5-1). Traci Girl held second by
three parts of a length at 8-1 and returned $9.10 and $3.10, while Cativa filled
the third spot as the even-money favorite and gave back $2.20. Actcellent (Noactor),
Bank Audit (Wild Rush), Childress (Evansville Slew) and Spectacular Moon
(Migrating Moon) filled out the order under the wire.
Pleasant Home, who was making her stakes bow here, now owns a career mark of
7-4-0-2 while more than doubling her earnings to $181,370. The Kentucky-bred
four-year-old followed in the hoofsteps of her illustrious older full sister
Country Hideway, who won the Bed o’ Roses in 2001, posted back-to-back victories
in the First Flight H. (G2) and placed in three Grade 1 events. Both fillies are
out of the unraced Our Country Place (Pleasant Colony), herself a daughter of
multiple Grade 1 winner Maplejinksy (Nijinsky II) and a half-sister to champion
Sky Beauty (Blushing Groom [Fr]).