Aqueduct: Unlimited Budget wins Demoiselle in second career start

OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In 16 days, Unlimited Budget went from an unraced 2-year-old filly to an undefeated Grade 2 stakes winner with unlimited potential.

Unlimited Budget, running back 15 days after winning her career debut, received a smart, front-running ride from John Velazquez and scored a 1 1/4-length victory in the scratch-reduced $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct.

Emollient, the 4-5 favorite, had to settle for second after stumbling at the start, getting trapped on the inside and then veering in a path in the stretch. Giant Cats Eye finished third followed by Flash Forward.

The Demoiselle field was reduced from seven to four with the scratches of Coconut Shrimp, who raced on Thursday, and Miss Patricia and Ruby Lips, both of whom trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said were coughing.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who won his fourth Demoiselle, was running Unlimited Budget back on 15 days’ rest, a bit unorthodox for him.

“You’re always concerned running back a little quick but she seemed to bounce out of the race really well physically and mentally, did everything right, never seemed to turn a hair,” Pletcher said. “She came back with a really good work the other day; we felt like it was a good calculated risk.”

After Emollient stumbled, Unlimited Budget seized the front and set fractions of 24.36 seconds for the quarter and 48.73 for the half-mile while being kept two paths off the rail by Velazquez.

Junior Alvarado aboard Emollient tried to come up the inside of Unlimited Budget down the backside, but Velazquez - both at the five-furlong pole and half-mile pole - let his filly spurt away.

Unlimited Budget came to the quarter pole more than a length clear and she was able to hold off a resurgent Emollient in the stretch.

“The inside is slower, so I wanted to keep [Emollient] inside a bit,” Velazquez said. “I wanted to keep her down in there and make her try to get by me there.”

Unlimited Budget, a daughter of Street Sense owned by Mike Repole, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:52.16 and returned $4.10.

“Emollient I thought she ran a very game race, it looked like she was still gaining on us,” Pletcher said. “Our filly’s still a little green;

Johnny said she was still looking at some stuff on the ground. For only her second start it was a big effort.”

Pletcher said Unlimited Budget would ship to south Florida and appoint to the series of races for 3-year-old fillies at Gulfstream Park.