Late-running Lady Prancealot scores in Honeymoon

ARCADIA, Calif. – Lady Prancealot left it late, but arrived at the front in ample time to win her first stakes in Saturday’s Grade 3 Honeymoon Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on turf at Santa Anita.

Lady Prancealot was sixth in a field of seven with a furlong remaining, trailing stretch leader Seranitsa by about two lengths, and stormed home to win by three-quarters of a length over 5-2 Hostess.

Lady Prancealot ($8.40) ran 1 1/8 miles on turf in 1:49.08 under jockey Joe Talamo and earned a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 85.

“I was really loaded the whole way,” Talamo said. “She turns off so well. When you need her to accelerate, she’ll give it to you.”

Over Emphasize, a 9-1 outsider making her stakes debut, finished third, followed by Seranitsa, Maxim Rate, Holly Hundy, and Dr Wysong.

Maxim Rate, the winner of the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes at a mile on turf on May 4, was the 2-1 favorite. She was third with a furlong to go, but faded from contention through the stretch.

Holly Hundy, who had her stakes debut in the $150,702 Honeymoon, set the pace through moderate fractions of 23.69 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 48.79 for a half-mile.

Lady Prancealot, an Irish-bred daughter of Sir Prancealot, has won 3 of 13 starts and earned $219,341. She joined trainer Richard Baltas’s stable last summer, having won once in five starts during a busy campaign in England in the spring of 2018.

With Baltas, Lady Prancealot finished second or third in four stakes prior to the breakthrough win in the Honeymoon. She was last of 14 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Churchill Downs last November.

Owned by Craig and Josie Arntz, Donald Durando, Michael and Jules Iavarone and Jerry McClanahan, Lady Prancealot was second to Maxim Rate in the Senorita Stakes, losing by a half-length.

“Last time, she ran into a slow pace,” Talamo said. “I moved earlier than I wanted to.”

Talamo said Lady Prancealot should thrive in even longer races.

“I think she can go a mile and a quarter,” Talamo said. “She relaxes so nicely.”