Down more than eight lengths with a furlong to go, Cozze Up Lady turned in a
remarkable outside bid in the final yards to win the $59,400
Mardi
Gras at Fair Grounds on Tuesday.
Guided by Rosie Napranik, Cozze Up Lady trailed the field of eight fillies
and mares to the top of the stretch before wearing down pacesetter Saturday Nthe
Park, who edged 8-5 favorite Good Deed for second by a neck.
“She was standing like a statue in the gate and I was trying to get her ready
to break,” Napravnik said. “She just walked out of the gate and wasn’t picking
up her feet, so I thought she just wasn’t going to run today. But once I got her
switched out in the stretch and she stopped taking dirt in her face, she really
came running.”
Originally scheduled for the turf, the 5 1/2-furlong Mardi Gras was instead
run on a sloppy main track in a time of 1:05.
Following Good Deed under the wire were Same Cross, Seeking Ms Shelley, Los
Ojitos, Malibu Holiday, and Fantasy of Flight. Scratched from the race were
Feisty Flirt, Mosaicist, Ms Hoochie Coochie, Point to the Wild, and Starship
Duchess.
The 5-1 fourth choice, Cozze Up Lady returned $12.40 while making her first
start since June 29. The five-year-old daughter of Cozzene, trained by Bret
Calhoun, was sidelined following a victory in the Chicago Handicap at Arlington,
a Grade 3 event.
Cozze Up Lady is owned by the partnership of Martin Racing, Morgan
Thoroughbred, Westwind Property and Farfellow Farms. The latter bred the mare in
Kentucky.
Cozze Up Lady was stakes-placed twice last season on grass at three, in the
Indiana Distaff at Indiana Downs and the Sandy Blue Handicap at Del Mar. Her
record now stands at 12-6-2-2, $286,431/
A daughter of the Johannesburg mare The White Lady, Cozze Up Lady counts as
her third dam the multiple Grade 3 queen Apolda, who is herself a half-sister to
Grade 3 winner Ganges. Multiple Grade 3 winner Bedanken also hails from this
female line.
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