Alice Marble holds on to earn first stakes win in Wishing Well

ARCADIA, Calif. - Alice Marble was second in her stakes debut in the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Sprint at Santa Anita on Jan. 15, a race that changed her career.

“It gave me the confidence to keep her on the grass,” trainer Phil D’Amato said.

Alice Marble returned to turf in Saturday’s $94,200 Wishing Well Stakes, and recorded her first stakes win with a hard-fought performance in the sprint for fillies and mares.

Ridden by Edwin Maldonado, Alice Marble ($7.80) stalked the pace for the opening half-mile and took the lead in early stretch, holding off a late bid from 4-1 Stella Noir to win by a half-length.

Alice Marble ran 6 1/2 furlongs on the main turf course in 1:15.45 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 84.

“The race set up beautifully,” D’Amato said. “They weren’t going too fast and he had enough to open up and hold on.”

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Stella Noir finished 1 1/4 lengths in front of 12-1 Spirit of Bermuda. Dynasty of Her Own finished fourth, followed by Tapwater and Hear My Prayer, the 9-5 favorite. Hear My Prayer stalked Dynasty of Her Own under jockey Juan Hernandez through an opening quarter-mile of 24.05 seconds and a half-mile of 46.29.

The opening quarter-mile time is often slow for the 6 1/2-furlong distance on the main turf oval because of a 20-foot run-up to the start of the timer.

Hear My Prayer was three wide on the backstretch, but faded through the stretch.

“She didn’t kick,” Hernandez said.

Alice Marble, a 5-year-old mare by Grazen, races for owner and breeder Nick Alexander. Alice Marble has won 4 of 9 starts and earned $221,180. She was winless in three starts as a 3-year-old in 2020 and won 3 of 4 starts in 2021.

The Wishing Well Stakes was her fifth start on turf, but first win. She has won three races on dirt in the last year, one maiden race and two allowance races.

The Wishing Well Stakes was restricted to fillies and mares who had not won a graded stakes since Aug. 1 of last year. The only starters in the field who were competitive in such a race in that span were Tapwater and Hear My Prayer, who were second and third in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Jan. 9.