Hilltop Stakes: Pizza Bianca's late run shows Bobby Flay she's ready for Royal Ascot

BALTIMORE - The question didn’t even have to be asked.

By the time owner Bobby Flay got from his seat to the Pimlico winner’s circle after Friday’s $100,000 Hilltop Stakes, the celebrity chef already knew where he would be in mid-June: Royal Ascot.

Flay’s Pizza Bianca punched her to ticket to a start in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes on June 17 at Ascot with a late-running 1 3/4-length victory in the Hilltop, rebounding from her narrow defeat in last month’s Memories of Silver Stakes at Aqueduct.

“To me, that’s what this is all about,” Flay said about participating in prestigious races such as Royal Ascot. “These horses can take you on experiences of a lifetime.”

Flay has been to Ascot before with More Than Real. The 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner, More Than Real didn’t handle the soft ground in the Coronation and finished 11th of 12.

“Didn’t matter, it’s an amazing experience,” Flay said.

Flay actually was thinking Ascot after Pizza Bianca won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar. He was disappointed that Pizza Bianca was beaten in the Memories of Silver on April 24, which is why he and trainer Christophe Clement opted to run back in the Hilltop.

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Clement and Flay wanted a different type of trip Friday than the one Pizza Bianca had in the Memories of Silver, when the filly raced a bit close to a soft pace. Friday, the pace was sharper with Murph setting splits of 23.31 seconds for the quarter, 47.56 for the half, and 1:11.38 for six furlongs.

Pizza Bianca was sixth, 16 lengths off the pace after the opening quarter and was still eight lengths back after six furlongs. But Ortiz hadn’t asked yet and when he did Pizza Bianca responded with a solid, gradual run that pushed her past Murph inside the eighth pole with only two taps of Ortiz’s whip.

Pizza Bianca, a 3-year-old daughter of Fastnet Rock, covered the mile in 1:36.54 and returned $2.80 as the 2-5 choice. Her effort earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 77.

“Down the backside I thought they went a little bit too fast early on and I felt like I was in a perfect position,” Ortiz said. “I knew from passing the six-furlong pole I was sitting on a lot of horse, I rode her very confident from that point.”

Diamond Hands, also trained by Clement, won a three-way photo for second by a head over Vergara, who was a neck better than Lady Puchi. Determined Gold was fifth, followed by Murph, Hail To, and Determined Star.

Both Flay and Ortiz said that Pizza Bianca prefers to settle and come with one run, which were the instructions on Friday.

“We were hoping for it to unfold exactly that way,” Flay said. “We asked Jose to break, put her to sleep let her go around the track and just ask her when she needed to be asked.”

No more questions, please.