Mylady Curlin noses out Golden Award to win duPont Distaff

BALTIMORE – From four starters at Pimlico on Friday, trainer Brad Cox won the Grade 3 Miss Preakness with Covfefe in a six-furlong track-record performance; finished a determined second with Ulele, who was beaten a half-length in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan; and won the last of seven stakes on the card with Mylady Curlin in the Grade 3 duPont Distaff.

Under a sweet ride from jockey Luis Saez, Mylady Curlin went to the lead in the 1 1/8-mile duPont, which had a field of seven fillies and mares. She set splits of 24.23 seconds, 47.89, and 1:11.50 under light pressure from the outside by Golden Award.

And then the race began.

Mylady Curlin and Golden Award slugged it out head-and-head for the length of the stretch, with Mylady Curlin winning by a nose. It was five lengths back to Gio Game in third.

“I just told Luis to run away from there whether we made the lead or not,” Cox said. “Having the lead and the rail figured to be a good thing for us. It almost worked with Ulele in the Black-Eyed Susan.”

Mylady Curlin paid $8.60 in the $150,000 duPont as the second betting favorite behind 2-1 Golden Award. She stopped the timer in 1:47.64 after a mile in 1:35.29.

“She really battled with that other filly,” Saez said.

Owned and bred by Sather Family LLC, Mylady Curlin improved her record to five wins from 10 starts. The duPont is her first stakes win.

Mylady Curlin won her first two races but then took six starts to get through her second-level eligibility conditions. She has now won three races in a row. She came into the duPont off a neck victory in a third-level optional-claiming race at Keeneland.

“She struggled there for a while, and we were questioning ourselves about why because we always liked her,” Cox said. “Her Keeneland race was very good though. She had a wide trip.”

Cox said he would send Mylady Curlin back to his Churchill Downs stable and then determine her next start.

“We’ll try and keep her in graded company and maybe look at something like the Fleur de Lis,” Cox said.

The Grade 2, $250,000 Fleur de Lis is a 1 1/8-mile stakes for fillies and mares at Churchill Downs on June 15.