Pin Up Betty returns to winner's circle with repeat Anchorage victory
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Pin Up Betty reached the winner’s circle for the first time in a year with a two-length repeat score in Saturday’s $275,000 Anchorage Stakes for fillies and mares on the Churchill Downs turf.
Pin Up Betty ($7.42) was sent away favored by the crowd by virtue of her strong record at Churchill, including victories in the Grade 3 Mint Julep and Anchorage during the 2025 spring-summer meet. However, a six-race skid followed – including an uncharacteristically poor effort in this year’s renewal of the Mint Julep, on May 30. That was largely due to an uncharacteristic running style. With likely pacesetters Charlene’s Dream and Stylish Sue both scratched out of that race, trainer Mike Maker and jockey Flavien Prat discussed putting the mare closer to the lead than normal. After chasing in second, she faded to seventh.
“Last time, the race didn’t look like there was any pace in it,” Maker said. “So, I asked [Prat] to put her in the race, and she didn't like it. Just let him do his thing today.”
Stylish Sue was in the gate for the Anchorage, and from the outside post, she sought the lead and cleared the field to save ground in the long run into the first turn. Although she posted modest enough fractions of 24.34 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 48.88 seconds for the half, she was pursued a measured length back by Settling Storm and Footnote tracking. Meanwhile, Pin Up Betty was a comfortable fifth after the opening half, with a bit of cover.
Stylish Sue clung on to the lead as Unmerited Favor, who had moved up full of run on the inside, was the first to came out to challenge into the stretch. But Prat brought Pin Up Betty even wider, and she ground her way to the lead and kept going.
"Saved all the ground, tipped out, and the rest is history," Maker said.
Closers fared well, as Way to Be Marie and Warming, sixth and seventh, respectively, behind Pin Up Betty through the opening half, were separated by half a length for second and third. They were followed, in order, by Unmerited Favor, Just Basking, Stylish Sue, Vive Veuve, Settling Storm, and Footnote. Tirupati was scratched.
The time for the 1 1/8 miles was 1:48.45 as the turf course officially rated "good" was used for the first time on the Saturday card, following heavy rain overnight and into the morning that led to flash flood warnings in nearby counties. The designation for a course that has handled precipitation well this spring seemed to be a fair one; hooves could be heard striking the ground soundly as the field headed into the first turn, and there was a lack of large clumps in the kickback.
Millionaire Pin Up Betty, a 5-year-old daughter of Constitution, races as a homebred for Three Diamonds Farm. All five of her career victories have come at Churchill Downs, and in addition to the 2025 Mint Julep and 2025-2026 editions of the Anchorage, she won the Grade 3 Regret in 2024.
Pin Up Betty has had excuses in all of her prior starts this year. She was fifth, beaten just two lengths, in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley in her first start off a winter break, then third in the Grade 2 Churchill Distaff Turf Mile, prior to the paceless Mint Julep. The top two in that Distaff Mile, Classic Q and Portfolio Duration, emerged to win Grade 1s at Saratoga the first weekend of June.
Maker isn’t sure where Pin Up Betty will go next – perhaps to Kentucky Downs for its rich meet in late summer. But for now, Pin Up Betty went back to her favorite course, and back to the winner’s circle.
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