Duchessa looks well spotted for third straight win
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It took Duchessa four starts to earn her maiden victory, but since breaking through on Feb. 1, she has turned the winner’s circle at Tampa Bay Downs into a second home. The filly will go for her third straight win in the seventh race on Wednesday, a starter allowance for 3-year-old fillies.
“She’s a neat filly,” trainer Arnaud Delacour said. “She tries hard. She’s a little bit complicated, a little bit nervous to ride, but it seems that she’s figuring it out now. I’ve been happy with her.”
After a dull debut in a turf sprint at Laurel Park last fall, Delacour shipped Duchessa to Tampa and stretched her out for the winter. She did not finish better than seventh in maiden special weights, but the trainer said he was relieved not to lose her when she finally broke through in a $25,000 maiden-claiming race on Feb. 1. In March, she improved to win a starter allowance by a neck, earning a 56 Beyer Speed Figure.
“We decided to run her for a tag because obviously, once they go for a tag, it’s an easier race,” Delacour said. “They also become eligible for the starters, so she’s been thriving while running against that kind of competition.”
The level has been right recently, but Duchessa also seems to have found the ideal distance, earning both of her recent wins at a mile on turf. She will tackle that distance again in a field of nine Wednesday.
Co-owned by Stella F. Thayer, owner and president of Tampa Bay Downs, along with Leverett S. Miller, the Caravaggio filly’s string of victories in Florida have held special meaning for the connections.
Thayer “wants to see her run at her home track, of course,” Delacour said. “It’s been great to be able to win two races for her there and, hopefully, we can run well again Wednesday.”
A favorite in each of her last two starts, Duchessa has been listed as the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the main field. She is the only horse in the field who has defeated winners.
The 7-2 second choice, Parlaypauline, returned from a three-month layoff and finished third behind Duchessa in March. In December, she was claimed by Jose Gallegos for $32,000 after winning a Tampa maiden-claiming race taken off the turf.
La Rodada, another off-the-turf maiden winner two back, returned to the grass for trainer Huber Dominguez and finished second in a conditioned $25,000 claiming race on March 22.
Greatest earned her maiden victory at Tampa in November before kick-starting her 3-year-old campaign at Gulfstream Park for Mark Casse. A distant also-ran in two starts there, she will return to Tampa off an 11-week break.
If weather intervenes, main-track-only runner Caura will have a distinct advantage for trainer Carlos Narvaez. The Tonalist filly is coming off a competitive fourth in a first-level allowance, for which she earned a 71 Beyer.
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