My Typhoon leaves Wait a While behind

ELMONT, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott lobbied owner Charlotte Weber to keep My Typhoon in training for her 5-year-old season, believing the mare had yet to reach her full potential.

Thus far, Mott has looked like a genius. My Typhoon ($9.10) won her second consecutive Grade 2 stakes Saturday, taking the $300,000 Just a Game Breeders' Cup Handicap by 3 3/4 lengths over odds-on favorite Wait a While. In winning her eighth race from 18 starts, My Typhoon, an Irish-bred daughter of Giant's Causeway, surpassed the $1 million plateau in earnings.

Under Eddie Castro, My Typhoon was able to get away with soft fractions, then ran away from Wait a While turning for home en route to the victory. Wait a While finished 1o1/2 lengths clear of Take the Ribbon. Mauralakana and Miss Shop completed the order of finish.

It was My Typhoon's second straight win over Wait a While, last year's 3-year-old filly champion. She also defeated Wait a While in the Jenny Wiley Stakes, a race scheduled for the turf but moved to Keeneland's Polytrack.

"I kind of put my head on the chopping block and voted for keeping her in training," Mott said. "She was very sound, and I thought she'd improve. . . . She appeared to me to be one of those that really hadn't had her best year yet."

My Typhoon, a half-sister to the European champion Galileo, got away with fractions of 25.03 seconds, 49.01, and 1:12.42. She came home the final quarter in 22.50 seconds for a final time of 1:34.92.

Garrett Gomez had a hard hold of Wait a While through the early stages of the race, but when it was time to move, the filly couldn't run with My Typhoon.

"I thought I applied the pressure at the right time," Gomez said. "I let him kind of go a little slow early. As we got to halfway up the backside, I went ahead and started creeping over and started to get the pace to quicken a little bit. I thought it would work out in our favor. When we turned for home, his filly re-broke and our filly couldn't quicken with his."

Mott said he would point My Typhoon to the Grade 1 Diana at Saratoga on July 28.