Belmont Park: La Cloche grabs some black type with Voodoo Dancer win

Adam Coglianese/NYRA

La Cloche wins the $90,000 Voodoo Dancer Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths on Sunday at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. – She likely won’t obtain the status of her Grade 1 stakes-winning younger half-sister Winter Memories, but for one day La Cloche had the spotlight to herself.

La Cloche won her first stakes Sunday, rallying four wide in the stretch under Junior Alvarado to take the $90,000 Voodoo Dancer Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths. Wallis, a hard-to-handle favorite, finished second by three-quarters of a length over longshot Kiss in the Forest.

Sylvestris, Fontley, All Due Respect, and Check Point completed the order of finish.

La Cloche, whose previous best result in a stakes was a second in the Grade 3 Pucker Up at Arlington in 2010, is a 5-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper out of the Grade 1-winning mare Memories of Silver. Like Winter Memories, she is owned and bred by the Phillips Racing partnership and trained by Jimmy Toner.

“Being Winter’s sister and out of the mother, we were really trying to make it with her,” Toner said. “Thank God, she got it done today, so we don’t have to go someplace else to try and get black type.”

Alvarado gave La Cloche a ground-saving ride down the backstretch and around the turn, moved her off the rail in upper stretch, and she powered home an easy winner. La Cloche ran a mile in 1:35.12 and returned $9.80 to win.

“She came back good this year, got a little unlucky the first time, but [Alvarado] did everything right today,” Toner said.

Toner said he would point La Cloche to the $100,000 De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 4.

Earlier on Sunday’s card, Roman Treasure made a good-looking return to New York and to the races with a front-running, two-length victory in the $85,000 Chaldrea Stakes for filly and mare sprinters.

Under Ramon Dominguez, Roman Treasure broke sharply from the gate, set fractions of 22.01 seconds for the quarter, 44.10 for the half-mile, and covered six furlongs in 1:08.84. She returned $8.60 to win.

Roman Treasure, a 4-year-old daughter or Roman Ruler, was making her first start since Dec. 10 when she finished last in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl Stakes at Gulfstream.

Roman Treasure, owned by Black Swan Stable and trained by Mike Hushion, could be a candidate for the Grade 2, $200,000 Honorable Miss Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 3.