Maple Leaf Mel aces open-company audition in Miss Preakness
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BALTIMORE - The New York-bred Maple Leaf Mel passed her class test with aplomb Friday at Pimlico, dragging Joel Rosario to the front early and cruising to a 1 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3, $150,000 Miss Preakness Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Pimlico.
Maple Leaf Mel, under Joel Rosario, put away the 4-5 favorite Key of Life before a half-mile was run in 45.21 seconds. She kept on going, and despite drifting out a little bit late, easily held longshot Topsy at bay. Topsy was second by 3 1/2 lengths over L Street Lady. Afternoon Tea, Key of Life, and Bound by Destiny completed the order of finish.
Happy Clouds was scratched.
Maple Leaf Mel, a daughter of Cross Traffic owned by the August Dawn Farm of Hall of Fame football coach Bill Parcells and trained by Jeremiah Englehart, improved her record to 4 for 4.
Maple Leaf Mel defeated New York-breds in her first three starts, including a 7 3/4-length victory in the East View Stakes in March off a seven-month layoff. The Miss Preakness was her first test against open company.
“The way she does it, I always figured she would run with whoever we put her against just because of the way when you ask her to do it, she responds,” Englehart said. “I thought she’d handle it. This was going to be her true test.”
Asked to grade the performance Englehart said, “She passed. In true DRF Clocker grades, it’s a B-plus.”
Englehart thought Key of Life would be the speed and was content if Maple Leaf Mel sat off her early on. But after a modest break, Maple Leaf Mel dragged Rosario alongside Key of Life and she was happy to be there through a quarter in 22.26 seconds. She was always traveling better of the front-running pair.
“Her break was not really super fast, but she had so much natural speed, she used herself right away and I let her do her thing,” Rosario said. “She looked like she was happy. If somebody [went] a little bit quicker than that, she would sit a little bit, but she put herself there and she liked that.”
Maple Leaf Mel covered the six furlongs in 1:09.56 and returned $5.40 as the second choice. She earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure.
Englehart said his goal is to try and win a Grade 1 with Maple Leaf Mel, the Test at Saratoga on Aug. 5 likely the main summer target.
Meanwhile, Brad Cox, trainer of Key of Life, tipped his baseball cap to the winner.
“The winner was very good,” he said. “I could tell shortly after the beginning, the way the winner kind of ranged up on the outside of us, that we were probably in for it today against her,” Cox said.
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