Find Your Spot wins fourth straight, first stakes with Irish Day Handicap

Find Your Spot recorded her first stakes victory Sunday with a hard-fought triumph in the $50,000 Irish Day Handicap for 3-year-old fillies at Emerald Downs. Overall, it was the fourth successive victory for the improving Find Your Spot, who ran one mile in 1:35.78 and paid $7.20.

Saddled by Jim Penney for the Where We At ownership group, Find Your Spot tracked pacesetters Chu and You and Belladiva to the far turn before moving three wide to join the leaders at the top of the stretch. She and jockey Isaias Enriquez inched away from there to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths.

Much of the pre-race chatter focused on Chu and You and whether she could carry her speed around two runs. The top 2-year-old filly at Emerald Downs last year, when she won four times in front-running fashion, Chu and You had yet to compete beyond 6 1/2 furlongs. While she could not withstand Find Your Spot in the final stages of the Irish Day, Chu and You, the even-money favorite, gave a game effort to hold the place.

Belladiva finished third, followed by Mylast Sweet Pea, Papa’s Flashy Girl, Cheeky Stone, Quiet Wisdom, and Timeless Pleasure in a field of eight.

By second-year stallion Nationhood, from the stakes-winning mare Sudden Departure, Find Your Spot earned $27,500 to push her lifetime mark to $99,820. Claimed by Penney and partners for $25,000 out of her career debut in September, Find Your Spot has won 5 of 7 starts for her current connections, including a first-level allowance at Santa Anita in February. She is likely to be seen next July 13 in the 1 1/16-mile Kent Handicap.