Runaway Ab wins Corte Madera

ALBANY, Calif. - Runaway Ab turned the $55,700 Corte Madera Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at Golden Gate Fields into a runaway Saturday.

Though forced to steady going into the first turn when favored Gloriously Golden suffered a fatal breakdown, Runaway Ab moved into the lead midway on the far turn on her own. She continued to open up from there, capturing the one-mile race by seven and one-half lengths over My Sand Dollar in 1:39.03.

Coupled with Past You, Runaway Ab paid $7.80 while increasing her lifetime earnings to $53,750 with two victories in three starts.

Trainer James K. Chapman said the Pennsylvania-bred filly would return to Hollywood Park but had no immediate plans for her.

"She loved the mud," winning rider Jose Arriaga said. "I wasn't even asking her, and she just galloped (to the lead)."

Owner Ronald H. Parker, who purchased Runaway Ab for $27,000 as a weanling at the Fasig-Tipton Sale in Maryland in 1999, said it was his first stakes victory in California.

Gloriously Golden fractured her left-front cannon bone when she slipped while changing leads heading into the first turn. She was euthanized. Jockey Roberto Gonzalez escaped injury in the spill.