Matareya impresses with Beaumont Stakes triumph
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – After winning the Grade 1 Madison on Sunday at Keeneland with the excellent older female sprinter Just One Time, trainer Brad Cox sent blossoming 3-year-old filly sprinter Matareya out to a very impressive victory Sunday in the Grade 3, $400,000 Beaumont Stakes.
Matareya, running to her strong favoritism, stomped six rivals posting an 8 1/2-length win over second-choice Radio Days. Reagan’s Decision, left behind by the winner at the quarter pole, finished third. Matareya ($4.20) clocked 1:27.55 over Keeneland’s seven-furlong, 184-foot Beard Course.
This was one of the slower Beaumont’s in recent history, but the Keeneland track produced modest times throughout the card.
Matareya showed talent from the start of her career last summer, but she hit a new level Feb. 26 at Fair Grounds, running a fast raw six-furlong time that produced a 91 Beyer Speed Figure in winning a six-furlong allowance race. That form carried over to Sunday.
Matareya broke alertly from the outside post in a seven-horse field, but Lady Scarlet scooted through on the rail to lead through splits of 22.87 and 46.61. Jockey Flavien Prat took a comfortable hold of Matareya, who rated off the flank of the leader.
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“She broke really well and relaxed really nice,” Prat said.
Lady Scarlet towed Matareya around the far turn, but when the fillies straightened for home and Prat asked his mount for run, the Beaumont quickly was over. With a turn of foot more often seen on turf than dirt, Matareya opened a lead of several lengths in less than a half-furlong, widening to the wire while traveling sweetly.
Matareya, bred and owned by Godolphin, is by Pioneerof the Nile and out of Innovative Idea, by Bernardini. Cox attributed his filly’s recent improvement to racing over one-turn trips rather than routes. Matareya now has four good races around one turn and two lesser ones around two.
“We were hoping she’d go long, She kind of trained like she would,” Cox said. Cox said Prat told him after the Beaumont that Matareya felt like a horse who could route. Cox isn’t convinced. “I think we’ll stick to one turn for now.”
That would bring into play races like the Eight Belles at Churchill Downs, the Acorn at Belmont, and longer term the Test at Saratoga. Cox didn’t hesitate to mention the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, right here at Keeneland in November, as a year-end ambition. Just One Time’s Madison win Sunday put her in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint conversation. Throw her younger stablemate’s name into the hat now, too.
***Slipstream prevails in Palisades
Slipstream, closing from last to first, roared up the rail under Joel Rosario and ran down odds-on favorite Twilight Gleaming to win the $188,788 Palisades Stakes by three quarters of a length.
Both horses were exiting Breeders’ Cup races, Twilight Gleaming having won the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Slipstream finishing a close sixth in the one-mile Juvenile Turf. Twilight Gleaming, a filly facing males, never had raced beyond five furlongs until the Palisades, and after setting splits of 22.17 and 45.73 over a course rated “good,” she wasn’t able to last the 5 1/2 furlongs of the Palisades.
That might’ve had something to do with the filly’s distance limitations, but she did close her final half-furlong in less than six seconds and finished more than five lengths clear of third-place Pure Panic. More than Twilight Gleaming’s deficiencies, it was Slipstream’s proficiency that carried the day.
Slipstream’s two turf wins last year came over six and seven furlongs. At a two-turn mile, the Juvenile Turf probably stretched his stamina; the question was whether Slipstream had enough speed to get up going 5 1/2 furlongs.
“It was a concern,” Rosario said.
Slipstream raced last of seven down the backstretch and had only moved up one position at the three-furlong pole. Rosario cut the corner and hinted at an outside run, but Twilight Gleaming had drifted well off the fence, and when Pure Panic left the rail open, Rosario took it. Slipstream quickened impressively and with long, fluid, determined strides, gained on Twilight Gleaming until he had the filly in his clutches, running out an eye-catching winner.
Second choice Slipstream paid $7.40 to win and was timed in 1:02.80. Christophe Clement trains the colt for Jump Sucker Stables, and he was bred by Burleson Farm and McKenzie Bloodstock. Slipstream is by More Than Ready out of Cake Baby, by Stormy Atlantic.