Miss Lily B wins fourth straight in Niagara Stakes

Miss Lily B started her off career with four second-place finishes. On Monday at Finger Lakes she evened the score by winning her fourth consecutive race in the $50,000 Niagara, a six-furlong sprint for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies.

The Niagara betting focused on even-money Stonesintheroad, who is trained by Jeremiah Englehart and was ridden by Rajiv Maragh, and 9-5 Elegant Zip, who was sent up from Belmont Park by trainer David Donk and who had Dylan Davis in the saddle. Neither of them broke sharply in the six-horse field and they finished second and fourth, respectively.

Miss Lily B vied for the early lead outside the Linda Rice-trained Cartwheelin Lulu for an opening quarter mile of 22.18 seconds before drawing clear. She settled into the stretch with a comfortable advantage under jockey John Davila Jr. and then pulled farther away to win by 7 1/4 lengths.

A daughter of Yes It’s True trained by Chris Englehart and owned by Ronald Brown, Miss Lily B paid $13.60 to win and was timed in 1:10.63 after cutting out fractions of 45.66 and 57.70.

Stonesintheroad took second by a half-length over 7-1 Cartwheelin Lulu. It was another 2 3/4 lengths back to Elegant Zip in fourth.
The Niagara is Miss Lily B’s first stakes win and keeps her perfect on the year after three starts. She came into the Niagara off back-to-back allowance wins. She has made all eight of her starts at Finger Lakes.