Graceful Princess gets up in final half-furlong, upsets Molly Pitcher

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Graceful Princess edged clear in the final half-furlong and upset the Grade 3, $250,000 Molly Pitcher Stakes on Saturday at Monmouth Park, giving Havre de Grace, the 2011 Horse of the Year, her first stakes-winning offspring.

Five-year-old Graceful Princess launched her 2021 campaign with a surprisingly strong third-place finish in the April 16 Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland, earning a 93 Beyer Speed Figure, 18 points higher than her previous best. Graceful Princess struggles on wet tracks and caught one June 9 at Delaware, finishing a badly beaten fifth in the Obeah Stakes, but she bounced back toward her top performance level Saturday beating Bajan Girl by three-quarters of a length.

“The track at Delaware was really messy,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “We weren’t sure, other than she came back and trained really well. She’s always been a filly who has trained like she was capable of doing something like this. She’s a big-framed filly who has matured nicely, settled in her training a lot more than she did before. She seems to have it all together.”

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Joel Rosario rode his third stakes winner on the card, keeping Graceful Princess outside and in the clear both turns. Mrs. Danvers took the early lead, Our Super Freak probing up the fence around the first turn to keep Mrs. Danvers from breaking into the clear, and when Our Super Freak attacked again past the half-mile pole, Mrs. Danvers had no resistance. Our Super Freak led into the stretch but was attacked first by Bajan Girl, Graceful Princess and Rosario joining outside those two and pushing on to victory.

Our Super Freak had more than seven lengths on fourth-place Thankful. Vault, the tepid favorite, finished fifth as second choice Mrs. Danvers faded to last.

Graceful Princess ($31), ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:41.67 off splits of 24.02, 46.99, and 1:10.90 and got a 96 Beyer Speed Figure. Not only is she out of Havre de Grace, whose other three foals to race have combined to win just twice from 13 starts, but Graceful Princess is by elite sire Tapit. She’s owned by her breeder, Whisper Hill Farm.