Acorn Stakes: Matareya leads gate to wire after late scratch of Echo Zulu
ELMONT, N.Y. – It’s not often when what happens immediately before a Grade 1 race overshadows what took place in the Grade 1 race, but that’s exactly what happened in Saturday’s $500,000 Acorn Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.
Just moments before the start of the race, Echo Zulu – last year’s 2-year-old filly champion and the odds-on favorite for the Acorn – was ordered a late scratch by ontrack veterinarians, who deduced the filly was lame in her left front leg, according to NYRA vet Dr. Anthony Verderosa. Joel Rosario, who had ridden Echo Zulu in her previous three starts, said in warm-ups Echo Zulu “felt different than she normally does.”
Steve Asmussen, trainer of Echo Zulu, seemed perplexed since he noted Rosario “never got her out of a jog.”
The scratch of Echo Zulu left Matareya the 1-5 favorite, and she didn’t disappoint, cruising to a front-running, 6 1/4-length victory over Divine Huntress in the Acorn. Dream Lith was third, while Inventing, a maiden, finished fourth.
The victory was the fourth in as many starts this year – and fifth from eight overall – for Matareya, a Godolphin Racing homebred daughter of Pioneerof the Nile. She is trained by Brad Cox and was ridden to victory by Flavien Prat.
The scratch of Echo Zulu also left the race without any speed, so Prat took advantage, putting Matareya on the front through a quarter in 23.39 seconds, a half-mile in 46.40, and six furlongs in 1:10.68. She covered the mile in 1:35.77. She returned $2.60 as the heavy favorite.
Matareya earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 89.
“She broke sharp, got me right to the lead, then I was traveling well and she respond well when I asked her to make the move,” Prat said.
Cox said that regardless of whether Echo Zulu was in the race or not, the plan was to go to the front.
“If they would have loaded up five of them, we were going to be very aggressive out of there,” Cox said. “If Echo Zulu was to break and get an easy lead, you’re not running her down. We were running to win and not for a placing.”
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While getting the Grade 1 victory for Matareya was gratifying, Cox said the scratch of Echo Zulu
“took a lot of excitement out of the race, but there’s nothing we can really do about it. We just march forward, we still had work to do after we found out about the scratch and she still performed.”
Cox said his mid-summer goal with Matareya is the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 6 at Saratoga.