A. A. Azula’s Arch gets first stakes win in Maple Leaf

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - A. A. Azula’s Arch raced close to a sleepy pace, took the lead turning into the stretch, and held off Lift Up and the favored Gamble’s Ghost to notch her first stakes win in Saturday’s Grade 3 Maple Leaf at Woodbine.

A. A. Azula’s Arch ($34.10) stalked on the outside of pacesetter Not Taken, who set fractions of 25.87, 51.87 and 1:15.87 in the 10-furlong test for fillies and mares. A. A. Azula’s Arch made the lead exiting the far turn, and then dug in gamely in late stretch to prevail by neck over Lift Up in 2:05.23. Gamble’s Ghost, last year’s Maple Leaf winner, rallied from sixth to finish another half-length back in third. Bletchley was a belated fourth in the 10-horse field.

It was the second Maple Leaf score for jockey Omar Moreno, who got a leg up from trainer Kevin Attard on A. A. Azula’s Arch.

“She was exactly where I got asked to put her,” Moreno said. “She took me there on her own. She was quite comfortable, so I just let her be and run her race. She never quit on me. Galloping out, she wanted to keep going. She has a big heart. I’m very lucky.”

A.A. Azula’s Arch earned $75,000 of the $128,550 purse for A & A Farms. The 3-year-old daughter of Arch was bred in Kentucky by Fox Hill Farms.