Devious Dame looks like a pro improving record to 2 for 2 in Astoria
ELMONT, N.Y. - Devious Dame ran her record to two wins from two starts with an easy victory Thursday in the $150,000 Astoria Stakes. A front-running winner of her five-furlong career debut last month at Churchill Downs, the 2-year-old filly clearly is fast and precocious, but she appears, in body and mind, to be a horse who can continue to thrive through the summer and fall.
From the first crop of Girvin, Devious Dame dueled on a solid pace in her career debut, put away the other speed and drew off in the final furlong. Thursday, in a tactical change, she was gently taken back off the speed, coming with a wide turn move, inhaling pacesetting Alexis’s Storm past the three-sixteenths pole, and going on to a 5 1/4-length victory.
Devious Dame paid $2.90 and covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.75. Girl Bye was a distant third in a spread out, five-horse field. Born Dapper was scratched.
“She’s got a very potent combination,” said winning trainer Norm Casse. “She’s fast enough to sprint, but I really do think once we get her into two-turn races where she can be forwardly placed but in her own rhythm, she’s going to be much more potent.”
Devious Dame, bred in Florida by Ocala Stud, Joseph O’Farrell, and David O’Farrell, is out of the Quality Road mare The Shady Lady. Physically, she’s put together more like a middle-distance horse, and mentally, she has her stuff together already.
“She won on Thurby and there was literally 50,000 people there and she never turned a hair. She has all the tools to be a good horse,” said Casse, who trains the filly, along with one other 2-year-old in training, for prominent owner John Oxley.
Alexis’s Storm popped the gate from post 1 and quickly established a clear lead, going her first quarter-mile in 22.67. Devious Dame, rating kindly, sacrificed ground loss on the turn for a clean run at the leader.
“He told me to just let her come out of there and find her stride,” said winning rider Joel Rosario. “I just sat there and let her do her job. She felt relaxed. At some point, I kind of had to ask her to pick it up, and she did. The further we went she got better and better.”
Casse said plans haven’t been firmly set for Devious Dame, but her likely schedule is a break, a start Aug. 7 in the Adirondack at Saratoga, another respite, and then a two-turn try in the Alcibiades at Keeneland.
“If we’re fortunate enough that she is a Breeders’ Cup type horse, I’d like to get a two-turn race into her,” said Casse.
The way this filly has looked in two races, it’s not too early to look toward the fall.