Another day at the office for Dayoutoftheoffice in Frizette

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Dayoutoftheoffice hadn’t been to work in the afternoon for 12 weeks. But she certainly didn’t forget how to do her job.

Sitting a perfect stalking trip under Junior Alvarado, Dayoutoftheoffice took the lead at the five-sixteenths pole and easily held 4-5 favorite Vequist at bay through the lane to win the Grade 1, $250,000 Frizette Stakes by two lengths at Belmont Park.

Vequist, the Grade 1 Spinaway winner, finished 10 1/4 lengths clear of longshot Cilla. Joy’s Rocket, Cantata, and Get On the Bus completed the order of finish. Fifth Risk scratched as his owner, Paul Pompa Jr., died Friday.

The win was the third in as many starts for Dayoutoftheoffice, a daughter of Into Mischief owned by Siena Farm and Tim Hamm and trained by Hamm. She won her maiden at Gulfstream Park in May and the Grade 3 Schuylerville in Saratoga on July 16.

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The victory was the first in a Grade 1 for Hamm, who has won more than 1,300 races since beginning his career in 1996.

“It’s great, honestly, for our whole staff,” Hamm said by phone from Florida, where he watched the race at Palm Meadows. “When you have as many horses at this point it’s a real team effort. I feel good for our staff and it means a lot to me personally.”

Hamm opted to give Dayoutoftheoffice a summer vacation after she won the Schuylerville to have a fresh horse for the fall with the hopes of getting to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland on Nov. 6. Dayoutoftheoffice earned an automatic fees-paid berth into the $2 million Juvenile Fillies.

Hamm said he had a little trepidation heading into the Frizette due to the 86-day layoff. Hamm noticed Dayoutoftheoffice was a touch keen early as she raced within a length of Joy’s Rocket through a quarter in 22.94 seconds, and a half-mile in 46.94.

“She was a little sharp early. You could see that coming out of the gate,” Hamm said. “I just hoped she had enough to finish at the end and she did. It worked out perfect.”

Alvarado said he got the precise trip he wanted from post 5, stalking the speed, and felt like he had the leader anytime he wanted.

“I thought it was going to be a little more of a contested pace," Alvarado said. “I thought I was almost in control of the race right where I was. I knew I had the horse in front of me. I just wanted to make sure my filly got into a nice rhythm at the same time I keep everybody where I wanted them to be. It just worked out great today. I had the horse for me to be able to do all that.”

Dayoutoftheoffice covered the mile in 1:35.82 and returned $7.80 as the second choice.

Butch Reid, the trainer of Vequist, thought there was going to be more pace in the race. He said if he thought the pace would have been that slow he would have made sure jockey Luis Saez had Vequist on the lead. In the end, though, Reid was pleased with his filly’s performance.

“I thought she ran well, she tried hard, that’s a nice filly that won the race,” Reid said. “I would have liked to have a little farther outside post position, but I’m not all dissatisfied with the race other than we didn’t win it.”

Reid said he would talk with the owners, but said he didn’t see any reason not to move on to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.