Miss Behaviour rules Matron

The Matron winner was on her best “Behavior”  (NYRA/Adam Coglianese Photography) Cal MacWilliam and Neil Teitelbaum’s Pennsylvania-homebred Miss Behaviour stayed undefeated after capturing her graded debut by a length in Sunday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Matron Stakes for two-year-old fillies at Belmont Park. “What a nice filly,” winning jockey Garry Cruise said. “I anticipated that Johnny (Velazquez) would be making the speed; his horse (even-money favorite Sweet Whiskey) is very talented. I was quite happy she set the pace the way she did. When I dropped her in to be competitive a little bit, she just came into gear and said, ‘Let’s go.’ “At that time, I could kind of sense that no one was going to jump on us, so I said, ‘Let’s finish this now.’ She’s been a 10 out of 10 so far, and today she was about an 11. She’s just a privilege to ride.” The Phil Schoenthal pupil chased Sweet Whiskey through a quick opening quarter of :22 1/5. Miss Behaviour surged to the lead around the far turn while posting a half-mile in a swift :44 2/5 and looked like she might run away from the field. She built up a three-length advantage in the stretch but that lead slowly dwindled as Sweet Whiskey dug back in to mount a late charge but fell short in the end.

“In this game, you learn to temper your expectations,” Schoenthal said. “I
didn’t expect her to go to the front like that and open up. When she moved to
the lead at the three-eighths pole, I said to myself, ‘Don’t run out of trainer,
don’t run out of trainer.’ I’m sure we’ll try her at two turns at some point,
but she’s a sprinter right now.”

Sweet Whiskey got up for second, while Gracer took third. Court Dancer, Ocean
Boulevard and Art of the Game completed the order under the wire. Miss
Narcissist was scratched from the race.

Miss Behaviour covered six furlongs over the fast main track in 1:10 2/5. The
3-1 third choice paid her backers $8 to win and banked $120,000 in the process
to boost her bankroll to $207,000 from three career starts.

“I’ve always wanted to ride here,” Cruise said. “What a privilege it is to
come to New York, and not only to win a graded stakes but to win for such great
people. This is like, I would imagine, like a player coming to Yankee Stadium
for the first time. The history of the place. It’s an honor to be here today.”

Miss Behaviour broke her maiden at first asking on July 22 at Parx Racing against
state-breds and was exiting an 8 1/4-length win in her stakes bow in the
Sorority Stakes at Monmouth earlier this month.

The daughter of Jump Start is out of the stakes-placed Successful Appeal mare
Successful Romance. Her third dam is Special Mistress, who produced Grade 2
winner Twilight Time, multiple stakes victress Uninhibited Song and Grade
3-placed Special Brush. The bay’s fourth dam is multiple stakes scorer Special Mah.

In an interesting sidenote, Miss Behaviour is the from the same female family
as Montana Native, who captured the Remington Park Oaks earlier on Sunday.

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