Fresh (very), fit (mostly), she proved dangerous

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Horses winning off long layoffs are not particularly rare. But when a 5-year-old mare named First Daughter ended the Monday program at Churchill Downs with an 11-1 surprise after more than 2 1/2 years off, well, that was taking the concept to an extreme.

“It was a while,” said Doug Matthews, the Chicago-based trainer of First Daughter.

A Kentucky-bred by First Samurai, First Daughter raced three times as a 2-year-old for trainer Larry Bates in south Florida. Before Monday, her most recent race had resulted in a 10th-place finish in a maiden special weight race on the Gulfstream Park turf on Oct. 12, 2013 – more than 31 months (961 days, to be exact) between starts.

Matthews said First Daughter had been purchased as a 3-year-old to be bred, “and it’s my understanding that for whatever reason, they ended up not breeding her.”

“She ended up standing out in a field for a year and a half,” he said.

On behalf of his stable foreman of 14 years, Teran Honorato, Matthews wound up buying First Daughter for “real cheap” and assimilated her into his stable at Arlington Park last August.

“She was fatter than hell,” said Matthews. “It took everything I could do to get the weight off her. Even if you look at her now, she’s still kind of heavy. I wasn’t getting anywhere working her, so I thought I’d just run her.”

Off three recorded workouts, First Daughter was entered in the bottom-level $10,000 maiden-claiming race at six furlongs. With Alex Jimenez up, she rallied from midpack to win by 1 1/4 lengths, returning $24.40.

Matthews, who went out on his own in 1995 after a lengthy stint as an assistant to Noel Hickey, a former leading trainer at Arlington, said he watched from home.

“I thought she had a chance, although I could see her getting a little short,” said Matthews, 52. “It was like running a first-time starter, almost starting from scratch.”

Matthews said First Daughter will run back in a non-winners-of-two claiming race.