Countess Cashmere gets first stakes win in Purple Violet

Countess Cashmere shipped across Chicagoland from Hawthorne to Arlington late this spring still a maiden, but now she is a stakes winner after capturing the $100,000 Purple Violet Stakes by a half-length Saturday.

Countess Cashmere raced competently on Hawthorne dirt but has improved on Arlington Polytrack. She won a maiden race May 17 well enough for trainer Tom Swearingen and owner-breeder John Carver to take a shot in the Purple Violet, and Countess Cashmere delivered.

Prominent from the start after breaking from post 1 under Carlos Marquez Jr., Countess Cashmere let Marquez ease her just behind and outside the pacesetting Richies Sweetheart, who ran through splits of 23.52 seconds, 46.80, and 1:11.68 in the one-turn mile.

“I just let him go,” Marquez said of his early tactics. “I said, ‘Let me get outside quick, just sit there, and wait.’ ”

Wait Marquez did, with Countess Cashmere holding second while on the bridle but not overly aggressive, and when Marquez asked for run after straightening for home, Countess Cashmere provided it. The favored Richies Sweetheart dug in gamely and held to the sixteenth pole but seems more sprinter than miler, and Countess Cashmere steadily wore her down.

The winner, a filly by Bellamy Road out of Bankruptcy Babe, paid $12.80 and was timed in 1:37.83 for the mile. Brazyn Appeal finished another 1 3/4 lengths back in third.

Swearingen won his second Illinois-bred 3-year-old stakes in a week, having captured the Springfield Stakes with I Got It All on May 31. Swearingen and Carver also won the 2013 Springfield with Reigning Catfish, a full brother to Countess Cashmere.