Lady Tak takes Tiffany Lass

NEW ORLEANS - For now, Lady Tak has answered the questions about her distance ability. Rating kindly just behind a slow early pace, Lady Tak opened up a big lead coming off the far turn and won the $100,000 by two-and-three-quarters lengths Sunday at Fair Grounds. The win pushed Lady Tak's record to a perfect four-for-four and showed that she's more than just a brilliant sprinter.

Lady Tak had been all flash in three sprint wins, showing a high turn of early speed and posting brilliantly fast times. The one-mile Tiffany Lass demanded something different. Sunday, she had to conserve her energy racing on a much slower pace and quicken partway through the race.

No problem. "Man, she was just on cruise out there," jockey Donnie Meche said to Lady Tak's connections as the filly was being led into the winner's circle.

After an eventful pre-start period, where both Belle Of Perintown and Buffalo Jump threw their riders, Perfect Wave set sail for the early lead with Lady Tak just behind her. The first quarter was slow, 24.18 seconds and the pace hardly quickened on the backstretch, with Perfect Wave leading by about a length through a half in 47.68 seconds. Meche sent Lady Tak after Perfect Wave while negotiating the second turn and Lady Tak effortlessly blew past Perfect Wave. One-mile races at Fair Grounds feature a short stretch run, and with a five- or six-length lead over the closers, nobody was catching Lady Tak this time.

"When I asked her to run, the acceleration she had was unbelievable," Meche said. "I think she has the heart if someone comes up to her she'll dig in and do fine."

Maybe, but Allspice and My Trusty Cat, the only horses running late, were eating into Lady Tak's lead at the finish, and by the regular finish wire both had passed her. Allspice finished second by a head over My Trusty Cat.

Lady Tak was geared down through a slowish final quarter-mile which effected her final time, 1:38.60 for a mile on a fast track. Lady Tak, who's owned by Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, paid $3.60 as the heavy favorite.

"I can't tell you how happy I was with her today," said trainer Steve Asmussen. "We'll nominate [to the Feb. 15 Silverbulletday] and point in that direction."