Grade 1 could be next for Spring Fever winner Alice Marble
ARCADIA, Calif. -- The dirt stakes experiment worked with the 6-year-old mare Alice Marble in Sunday’s $100,000 Spring Fever Stakes for statebred fillies and mares at Santa Anita.
A Grade 1 stakes experiment may be next.
Ridden by Flavien Prat, Alice Marble ($4) rallied from last in a field of five to win the Spring Fever Stakes by 1 3/4 lengths, finishing six furlongs in 1:10.29.
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Alice Marble raced behind rivals on the turn and rallied through a narrow gap between 5-1 Taming the Tigress and 3-1 Eddie’s New Dream. Alice Marble took the lead in the final furlong.
“When he got her in there, she showed the will and determination,” D’Amato said.
Taming the Tigress, claimed for $20,000 last October, finished second, three-quarters of a length in front of Eddie’s New Dream.
Doris Mae, third in the Grade 3 Las Flores Stakes at six furlongs on Dec. 31, faded to fourth after setting an early pace of 22 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 44.97 for a half-mile. Chancery Way finished last.
After the Spring Fever, D’Amato mentioned the Grade 1 Beholder Mile on March 11 as a possible goal for Alice Marble, who races for owner and breeder Nick Alexander.
“I’m thinking of trying her long,” D’Amato said. “We may take a giant swing in the Beholder Mile. She fits the profile of a two-turn dirt horse.”
The Spring Fever was Prat’s fourth stakes win of the winter-spring meeting, and was the third career stakes win for Alice Marble.
Spring Fever, by Grazen, has won 6 of 14 starts and earned $410,880. She is unbeaten in four starts on dirt, but the Spring Fever was her dirt stakes debut.
Alice Marble won the restricted Wishing Well Stakes at 6 1/2 furlongs on turf last February and the Fran’s Valentine Stakes for statebred fillies and mares at a mile on turf last May. She has started in six stakes in her career.
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