Ronald Charles & Clear Valley Stables’ PICKLE (GB) (Piccolo) nosed out Makeup
Artist (Dynaformer) at the wire of Saturday’s $109,600
Wilshire H. (G3) at
Hollywood Park to earn her first stakes victory stateside. Trained by Sanford Shulman and ridden by Jon Court, the four-year-old miss completed a mile on the
firm turf in 1:33 4/5 at 9-1 and paid out $20.80, $9.40 and $5.20 for the score.
Five Nickels (Quiet American) took the lead soon after the start to lead the
field through splits of :22 4/5, :45 4/5 and 1:09 3/5 before Mea Domina (Dance
Brightly) moved up three wide to take over by the time seven furlongs was
reached in 1:22. That one didn’t have enough to sustain her advantage, though,
as Makeup Artist and Pickle battled through the top of the stretch and hit the
wire just a nose apart.
Makeup Artist returned $6.80 and $3.60 at 5-1 and ended the $52.10 exacta
($1). Amorama (Fr) (Sri Pekan) was another two lengths back in third at 9-2 and
gave back $3.40 for finishing the $233.80 trifecta ($1). Mea Domina completed
the $655.70 superfecta ($1) (9-4-5-2) in fourth and next under the line came
Belle Ange (Fr) (Ganges), Antediluvian (GB) (Air Express), Festival (Jpn) (Assatis)
and Five Nickels.
Pickle, third in the Miss America H. prior to Saturday’s event, ran her line
to 15-6-1-3 with $146,539 in lifetime earnings. Bred in Great Britain by Simon
Tindall, the dark bay filly is out of the winning Crackle (Anshan [GB]) and has
a sophomore half-sister named Pivock (Pivotal).