Oaks victory puts Malathaat one up on her dam

Malathaat avenged the 2013 Kentucky Oaks loss of her dam, Dreaming of Julia, with a victory in the filly classic on Friday at Churchill Downs. She and her dam were both brought to the Oaks by trainer Todd Pletcher, who achieved an exacta of sorts in this year’s edition. He also trained Co Cola, dam of Search Results, a hard-fought second to Malathaat on Friday.

Dreaming of Julia, a Stonestreet Stables homebred by A.P. Indy, won 4 of 8 career starts, including the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes and Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Oaks. The only time she finished out of the top three was in the Kentucky Oaks, when she had a troubled start. Malathaat, a seven-figure yearling purchase by Shadwell Stables from Stonestreet, is Dreaming of Julia’s first starter, and Pletcher has continually compared the Curlin filly to her dam.

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“They are just both really special fillies with a lot of talent,” Pletcher said after the Oaks. “Malathaat’s a little bit scopier and just a little bit of a bigger filly. But again, Dreaming of Julia showed enormous talent from the very beginning, as this filly did. So it’s easy to draw comparisons in that way.”

Dreaming of Julia has a yearling Curlin filly who is a full sibling to her Oaks winner and delivered a Medaglia d’Oro filly on March 30.

Co Cola, by Candy Ride, was trained by Pletcher for Bortolazzo Stable and Xavier Racing Partners. She won only a maiden race from five starts, but was second in the Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes at Gulfstream, and recorded stakes placings at Laurel and Calder. She is now the dam of two winners from as many starters, led by the Grade 3-winning Flatter filly Search Results, bred by Machmer Hall and campaigned by Klaravich Stables.

Co Cola has an unnamed juvenile full brother to Search Results in the pipeline. The mare did not have a foal in 2020 and was bred to Nyquist for this season.