Lovely Afternoon, Catboat dead-heat in Arlington Oaks

Even after 1 1/8 miles, the Arlington Park photo-finish camera could not separate Lovely Afternoon and Catboat. Both fillies were racing at the longest distance of their careers Saturday, when they finished in a dead heat for win in the 25th running of the Grade 3, $150,000 .

Catboat, ridden by Eddie Martin Jr., was unlucky to have to settle for a tie, having spotted the other nine 3-year-old fillies several lengths at the break. Undaunted, Martin guided his mount through a clever trip the rest of the way, as Catboat took the lead in midstretch from the front-running favorite, Fly Away Angel, before Lovely Afternoon drew even in the final strides.

Catboat, a Tale of the Cat filly owned by Stonerside Stable and based in Kentucky with Bernie Flint, returned $6.20 to win. Lovely Afternoon, an Afternoon Deelites filly owned by the Richard Otto Stables and based locally with Anthony Mitchell, paid $16.

My Time Now finished 1 3/4 lengths behind in third. The winning time over a fast main track was 1:51.06.

* Arlington officials announced Saturday that overnight purses for the remainder of the meet will be increased by 3 to 5 percent, effective Wednesday. An upturn in overall business is responsible for the increase, said Frank Gabriel Jr., executive vice president of racing.