Regal Glory takes early lead, keeps it in Matriarch Stakes
DEL MAR, Calif. - At the start of Sunday’s Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes at Del Mar, jockey Jose Ortiz took no chances aboard Regal Glory.
As quickly as possible, Ortiz had Regal Glory in front, en route to a comfortable two-length lead on the first turn. The trailing five fillies and mares got slightly closer at one point in the one-mile turf race, but never threatened Regal Glory, who won by 2 1/2 lengths for her first win in a race at the highest level.
“I thought I was the only speed,” Ortiz said. “That helped me. There was no speed. I was able to get away with easy fractions and when I asked her I had plenty left.”
Regal Glory set a modest pace of 24.50 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 48.50 for a half-mile. The second choice, Regal Glory ($5.20) finished in 1:35.33 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101.
On Sunday morning, Ortiz and trainer Chad Brown discussed strategy on the phone, opting to send the 5-year-old Regal Glory to the front in a race that lacked a clear pacesetter.
“We felt she was fast enough to be on the lead,” Brown said in a phone conversation after the Matriarch. “I didn’t want to take any chances.
“I’m not flying (the horses) all the way out there to sit behind horses and wait for them to come back to me.”
Zofelle, second in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes here on Nov. 6, stalked the pace throughout and finished second, a length in front of Princess Grace, the 3-2 favorite who was third in the Goldikova.
Princess Grace set the pace in the Goldikova but could not sustain her lead. On the backstretch and final turn of the $400,500 Matriarch, Princess Grace was last of six, racing in traffic at times. Princess Grace closed with interest through the stretch to finish a nose in front of the Brown-trained Viadera for third.
Mike Stidham, who trains Princess Grace, said before the Matriarch that he would prefer his filly race from a stalking position instead of setting the pace.
“You either go or you don’t go,” Stidham said. “We didn’t go and we got stuck behind horses the whole way.
“Either way, it was giving Chad the race. No one challenged her and she cruised around there.”
Viadera was followed by Fast Jet Court and Bodhicitta.
Brown has won the Matriarch in four of the last five seasons. Sunday’s win capped a day in which he and Ortiz won the Grade 3 Cecil B. DeMille for 2-year-olds with the undefeated Verbal earlier on the program.
Brown was winless with 10 runners in Breeders’ Cup races at Del Mar on Nov. 5-6, including second-place finishes by My Sister Nat in the Filly and Mare Turf and Dunbar Road in the Distaff. The stable had two leading contenders withdrawn from Breeders’ Cup races with Jack Christopher in the Juvenile and Domestic Spending in the Turf.
Regal Glory, Verbal, and Viadera were three of eight horses the stable sent to Del Mar on Thanksgiving weekend for graded stakes on turf.
“We finally had our day after a rough month at Del Mar,” Brown said. “Luckily, we had some more horses to run. We got back to winning today.”
Regal Glory, owned by Peter Brant, has won 9 of 16 starts and has earned $1,244,884. A 5-year-old mare by Animal Kingdom, Regal Glory is nearing the end of her racing career.
Brown said there is a possibility Regal Glory could have an additional start in the Grade 3 Pegasus Filly and Mare Turf Invitational, a $500,000 race at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 29.
“We’ll see if she’s up to it,” Brown said.