“Absolutely (we’re going to the Breeders’ Cup),” said Chad Brown, who took
The Ken and Sarah Ramsey homebred was bet down to 6-5 favoritism off two
But Stephanie’s Kitten was on her game from the start in the Flower Bowl, and
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As expected, Viva Rafaela was bowling along on the front end through splits
of :24 3/5, :50 1/5, 1:14 3/5 and 1:38 2/5. Starstruck and Alterite, another of
Brown’s trio, were her nearest pursuers. Abaco was nestled in midpack early, and
advanced on the inside to race as a team with Stephanie’s Kitten.
Viva Rafaela tried to spurt away decisively entering the stretch, but
Stephanie’s Kitten was already kicking into gear. Stamping her class, the
favorite drove to a 1 1/4-length decision in a final time of 2:01 on the firm
inner turf. The five-year-old repaid her loyalists with $4.40 to win.
“She got a beautiful trip, and I’m really proud of this filly — she deserved
to get a good, clean trip,” Brown said. “That’s the third race in a row for us
that I felt she ran terrific. She was a little unlucky in the Beverly D. and
Diana (with Frankie Dettori aboard), and this time Johnny got away from the gate
really well and gave her a beautiful trip. The filly did the rest.”
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” said Velazquez, who last rode
Stephanie’s Kitten in the Just a Game. “We broke well enough, and I wanted to
make sure I got a nice position going into the first turn. Once we got that, I
was pretty pleased with where I was and kind of bided my time. When I asked her,
she responded right away, and made me look really good.”
Abaco, who had to peel outside for running room, finished well to catch Viva
Rafaela by a neck for second.
“She was second best,” Hall of Fame trainer Shug McGaughey said of Abaco. “I
thought she ran good. I thought maybe around the turn she got shuffled around a
little bit, but she went on and finished well.
“If the pace had been a little quicker, it would have probably helped the
winner, too, but we might not have had to ease up that far on her. I am
satisfied with the race she ran. I hate to lose, but she ran a good race.”
“She broke good and she had a perfect trip,” Abaco’s rider Jose Ortiz said.
“Johnny had a lot of horse, too, so I kept him there. When he moved he took
advantage, and when I moved it cost me a little bit but I thought she ran a
fabulous race. There was no pace and I tried to put her close, but I didn’t want
to take her out of her game. She did what she could and she tried 100 percent.”
The winner’s stablemate Watsdachances got up for fourth, giving Brown the top
and bottom of the superfecta. Next came Starstruck, Tannery, Alterite and
Strathnaver. Maximova was scratched.
Stephanie’s Kitten boosted her bankroll to $2,274,104 from her 18-8-2-4 line.
Now in her fourth season of racing, the Kentucky-bred bay has been among the
leaders of her generation. For her original trainer, Wayne Catalano, she
captured the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Alcibiades, the 2012
Lake Placid and Edgewood and the 2013 Just a Game and Churchill Distaff Turf
Mile. Her five career stakes placings include the Ashland, the past two runnings
of the Diana, and the aforementioned Beverly D.
Out of the unraced Catienus mare Unfold the Rose, Stephanie’s Kitten counts
as her second dam 1995 Del Mar Oaks heroine Bail Out Becky. The latter is also
the ancestress of Peruvian champion Fly Lexis Fly. This is the further family of
Grade 1-winning millionaire and international sire More Than Ready. Stephanie’s
Kitten traces to the blue hen *La Troienne.
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