HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - For the third time in the last five years a 3-year-old filly blew up the tote board after winning the $200,000 Davona Dale at Gulfstream Park. Dorth Vader became the latest to join the club by posting a $95.40 win mutuel after registering a convincing 4 3/4-length victory over fellow longshot Guns n’ Graces in the Grade 2 Kentucky Oaks prep. Dorth Vader, who earned 50 qualifying points for the Oaks, continued a precedent in the one-mile Davona Dale started by the 51-1 Jeltrin in 2019 and duplicated by Wholebodemeister, a 52-1 chance, two years later.  Dorth Vader entered the Davona Dale off a disappointing sixth-place finish in the seven-furlong Gasparilla to launch her 3-year-old campaign seven weeks earlier. But she had showed her class by winning two stakes in her two previous starts, the seven-furlong Juvenile Fillies Sprint here last fall and Tampa’s six-furlong Sandpiper in her 2-year-old finale. Dorth Vader bounced out of the Gasparilla with a pair of bullet five-furlong works and showed off that speed when racing forwardly placed from the outset, within easy striking distance of the even-money and previously undefeated Red Carpet Ready, in the run down the backstretch. Dorth Vader readily overtook the tiring leader while kept out in arguably the better footing near the middle of the track leaving the furlong grounds, quickly edged clear, then increased her advantage steadily thereafter. :: Get ready for Gulfstream Park racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.  Guns n’ Graces, the lesser-regarded of the two Chad Brown trained fillies (along with Undervalued Asset) in the race at odds of 28-1, raced far back to the stretch then finished full of run down the center of the course to be second-best while never menacing the winner. Red Carpet Ready tired badly after seven furlongs but held on to finish third while suffering her first defeat in four starts. Leave No Trace, making her first start since finishing second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, raced well placed during the early running, dropped back suddenly on the turn and was eased to the wire by jockey Tyler Gaffalione. Dorth Vader, a homebred daughter of Girvin owned by John Ropes, gave her trainer, Michael Yates, the first graded stakes win of his career. She was ridden to victory by Miguel Vasquez. Dorth Vader got an 81 Beyer Speed Figure. “I was confident in her, I thought she’d run a really big race because of the way she trained,” Yates said. “I kind of drew a line through the race at Tampa. That’s happened to me more than once, and other people (shipping to Tampa). It rained kind of hard the day before and it was a deep track.” Yates said he was thrilled at where Dorth Vader was positioned in the run down the backstretch. “I was worried when Tyler was lapped outside of her (on Leave No Trace), that she might get pinched back between horses,” Yates added. “But once I saw her ease through the hole, I felt really good.” Yates said he believes Dorth Vader will stretch out around two turns considering the way she ran at 2 when finishing third in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, mentioning the Gulfstream Park Oaks (G2) as the next possible option for her on April 1. Gaffalione said after the race that he was not certain what happened with Leave No Trace. “The only thing I can think is maybe she bled? I don’t know. She was traveling nice down the backstretch but then, when we hit the turn, that was it. She was done.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.