Mayas Queen Neetee wins Vivacious Handicap in stakes debut

Mayas Queen Neetee stretched her win streak to four with a three-length victory in the $75,000 Vivacious Handicap for Ohio-bred fillies and mares Sunday on the Belterra Park turf.

The mare's win streak kicked off when she was transferred to Jeffrey Radosevich, among the leading trainers on the Ohio circuit, for owner Ron Paolucci. She was unplaced in three tries on turf in New York to begin her career, then won her maiden in her sixth career start and an allowance race, both by 3 3/4 lengths. She then stretched out from sprint distances to win a one-mile allowance by 7 1/2 lengths with a front-running trip. The Vivacious was her stakes debut.

Mayas Queen Neetee ($6.60) and Luis Colon sat 1 1/2 lengths off the early lead of Floral Sky as the latter took the field through an opening half of 47.34 seconds, and six furlongs in 1:11.43. The eventual winner took over in the stretch, and powered clear to her winning margin. The final time was 1:42.32 for 1 1/16 miles on turf rated firm.

School Board Prez closed from seventh in the field of eight and weaved through traffic in the stretch to edge Hope’s Frog Song by a head for second. Those two had been first and second, separated by a neck, in the Vivacious last year.