Champagne Room hadn’t been seen in competition since February 5, but showed no signs of rustiness when wiring Saturday evening’s $200,000 Remington Park Oaks under jockey Mario Gutierrez by 3 3/4 lengths.
The bay daughter of Broken Vow took command of the race from the start and never looked back, setting splits of :23.65, :47.05, 1:11.07 and 1:35.62 before finishing 1 1/16 miles on the fast Remington Park dirt in 1:42.05.
Champagne Room was full of herself early, pulling well away from her four rivals on the backstretch and forcing Gutierrez to take a tight hold. That allowed the rest of the field to catch up briefly before Gutierrez let out a notch on the filly rounding the turn and she once again kicked clear.
Ever So Clever was the only one to challenge Champagne Room after trailing in last on the backstretch, but it wasn’t much of a challenge as Gutierrez offered encouragement and Champagne Room maintained a solid margin between the two.
Ever So Clever finished best of the rest, 3 1/2 lengths up on Babybluesbdancing, who in turn had four lengths to spare on Holiday’s Angel in fourth. Torrent completed the order under the wire.
Sent off the 1-5 favorite, Champagne Room returned $2.40 while improving her career record to 7-3-1-2, $1,430,600. The Peter Eurton trainee ran second in her debut last July at Del Mar before breaking her maiden next out in the Sorrento Stakes (G2). She filled the third spot in the Del Mar Debutante (G1) and was fourth in the Chandelier Stakes (G1) in her first start at Santa Anita Park.
Champagne Room was honored as the champion two-year-old filly of 2016 after upsetting the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) next out at Santa Anita at 33-1. She made her sophomore bow on February 5 in the Las Virgenes Stakes (G2), but was a well-beaten third that day and given time off, just returning to the worktab in late July at Del Mar.
Bred in Kentucky by Respite Farm, the bay lass is campaigned by Ciaglia Racing LLC, Exline-Border Racing LLC, Gulliver Racing LLC, R. Christensen, D. Legan and S. Alesia. She is out of the Bernstein mare Lucky to Be Me and comes from the same female family as Grade 1 winner and dual classic-placed A P Valentine.
