With Prat aboard, Duvet Day ends skid with late charge in Cardinal Stakes

Duvet Day broke a 10-race losing streak dating to January 2023 and captured her first graded-stakes race when she won the Grade 3, $300,000 Cardinal Stakes by three-quarters of a length on Thursday at Churchill Downs.

Call it the Flavien Prat factor. Prat had never ridden Duvet Day until Thursday, when he sent her flying down the center of the turf course in the 1 1/8-mile Cardinal, Duvet Day going from eighth at the stretch call to first under the wire. Duvet Day’s final furlong in 11.75 was nearly a half-second faster than the next-quickest finishing split in the 10-runner Cardinal. Horses just seem to run for Prat.

Dreaming of Mo set a moderate pace, 48 seconds to the half, while tracked by 9-5 favorite She’s Lookin Lucky, who, under Florent Geroux, pounced on the pacesetter in upper stretch and took a lead that she would have held but for Duvet Day’s flying finish. Trained by Michael McCarthy for Jane Bacharach, William DeBurgh, and Richard Schatz, Duvet Day had long been campaigning as a turf marathoner, exiting the 1 1/2-mile Bewitch at Keeneland, which followed the 2 1/16-mile Nashville Gold Cup at Kentucky Downs. Duvet Day, in fact, had not raced over a distance as short as 1 1/8 miles since October 2022, when she’d been third in a second-level allowance race.

She’s Lookin Lucky held second by three-quarters of a length over Queen Regent, who also finished with interest from the back of the field. Racing over a firm course, Duvet Day was timed in 1:48.79 and paid $23 to win.

Bred in Ireland, Duvet Day is a 5-year-old daughter of Starspangledbanner and the Montjeu mare, Je T’Adore. Three for 23 without Flavien Prat, one for one with him, Duvet Day on Thanksgiving afternoon belatedly became a stakes winner.

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