It's High Time wins first stakes in Desert Vixen

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s High Time out-footed the heavily favored Ballet Diva to the top of the stretch and went on to post a 10-1 upset in the $200,000 Desert Vixen Stakes, the co-feature of the Florida Sire Stakes program Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

Ridden by Harry Hernandez, the leading apprentice at a Gulfstream summer meet that began July 1, It’s High Time prevailed by 3 1/4 lengths over Silent Prayer, paying $23.20 after finishing six furlongs in 1:12.59 over a fast track. A field of eight 2-year-old Florida-bred fillies started.

Jose Pinchin trains It’s High Time for Tracy Pinchin, who also bred the dark bay daughter of Gone Astray. The filly was a romping winner of her May 21 debut before finishing a distant third behind Ballet Diva in the 5 1/2-furlong Cassidy Stakes on the July 5 Summit of Speed undercard.

“She’s a hell of a nice filly,” said Pinchin. “She’s small, but her heart is in the right place. I guess the six furlongs were better for her.”

Despite a poor start, High End Queen rallied to finish fourth while getting to third-place finisher Ballet Diva, the 1-5 favorite who returned $2.10 to show.

From a show pool of $271,496, $249,911 was bet on Ballet Diva, an easy winner of her two prior starts in gate-to-wire fashion. Gulfstream mutuels personnel said the major show bets were made off track and that a minus pool of $51,143 was created for entities accepting the bets.

Silent Prayer and Ballet Diva are Jacks or Better Farm homebreds.

The Desert Vixen kicks off the Florida Sire Stakes series in this division and is followed by the Sept. 5 Susan’s Girl and Oct. 3 My Dear Girl. It is the filly counterpart to the $200,000 Dr. Fager, which was to come later Saturday.

The $2 exacta (4-3) paid $201.40, the $1 trifecta (4-3-6) returned $208.80, and the 10-cent superfecta (4-3-6-1) was worth $46.94.