07/21/2012 6:54PM

Arlington Park: La Tia Takes big step up winning Arlington Oaks

By Marcus Hersh
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Four-Footed Fotos
La Tia, with Constantino Roman riding, wins the Arlington Oaks.

 ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Since changing barns and moving to Polytrack this year, the 3-year-old filly La Tia has been unbeatable, and on Saturday at Arlington she jumped from statebred-restricted to graded stakes competition and captured the Grade 3, $150,000 Arlington Oaks by three-quarters of a length over Sky Dreamer.

A daughter of City Place bred and owned by Salvador Hernandez, La Tia turned in three middling dirt-sprint performances last year at age 2, but racing for trainer Brian Williamson this season, she won a May 25 Arlington maiden race by nine lengths, then took the Purple Violet Stakes by 8 1/4. Both those Polytrack races were one-turn miles, and on Saturday, La Tia made her first two-turn start in her first test against open competition.

"She was 2 for 2 on Polytrack and won both races easily, so I thought we'd keep her on the Poly and give her a shot," said Williamson.

La Tia went for the early lead and outran Lady Candidate to get it, setting reasonable fractions of 24.81 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 49.37 to the half. Well clear turning for home, La Tia had a 4 1/2-length lead at the stretch call but Sky Dreamer, emerging from mid-pack, ran on decently to make it close at the finish. Sky Dreamer was five lengths clear of third-place Ire, who was followed home by Lady Candidate, Ann of the Dance, 7-5 favorite Treasured Up, and Annie Russell.

Constantino Roman rode the winner, the first victory of his career in four graded-stakes mounts. La Tia, timed in 1:51.46 for the nine furlongs, paid $9.60 to win as the third choice.

 

JoyJackson21 More than 1 year ago
La Tia was very lucky that Sky Dreamer ran out of real estate before she caught La Tia. La Tia pulled out with command out of the stretch and was at least five lengths ahead. Then La Tia hit the wall of pain and you could visibly see her slowing down dramatically, while Sky Dreamer was moving up rapidly from fourth. A good job by Sky Dreamer, but a win is a win and La Tia ran an impressive race until almost the end. Congratulations to her on her third win in a row. A nice victory.
jg777 More than 1 year ago
thanks for recapping the drf article for us
JoyJackson21 More than 1 year ago
Actually, the DRF article said far more than I did. I just commented on the race that I watched and gave my own impressions of what I saw. But I understand what you were trying to do - you just wanted to land a sarcastic comment, no matter how incorrect it was.