Suffused wins battle with Arles in La Prevoyante

HALLANDALE, Fla. - Like a good prizefight between a couple of talented heavyweights, the result of Saturday’s $200,000 La Prevoyante at Gulfstream Park went to the judges before Suffused was made the official winner of the 12-furlong, Grade 3 race for fillies and mares.

The two heavyweights in question were Suffused and Arles in a rematch of their similarly tight battle in the Grade 3 Glens Falls last summer at Saratoga, a race in which Suffused also proved narrowly best.

Suffused had to overcome post 12 in the La Prevoyante. Jockey Jose Ortiz deftly tucked her into the two path down the backstretch after being hung four wide around the first of the three turns. Suffused commenced her bid on the final bend, edged past Arles while in the process of overtaking the pacesetter Try Your Luck near the furlong marker, lugged in a bit through midstretch, but maintained a narrow advantage to the end.

Arles raced well-placed just in front of Suffused for more than a mile, could not quite match strides with her nemesis when set down three wide by jockey Joel Rosario into the stretch, continued gamely despite being pushed in slightly near the sixteenth pole - but was not quite good enough. Try Your Luck narrowly held off Quiet Kitten to finish third.

Claims of foul by the rider of Quiet Kitten against Arles, as well as Rosario against the winner, were disallowed.

Suffused, a homebred daughter of Champs Elysees, is owned by Juddmonte Farms and trained by Bill Mott. She completed 1 1/2 miles in 1:26.04 over a firm course and returned $5.00 as the favorite in a full field of 12.

“The post position was bad, but if you scratch, where are you going to run?” Mott said. “She got into the two path around the second turn and looked like she had her (Arles) whenever she wanted to. He (Ortiz) said we came in a little when she switched leads. Horses always come in a half a path when they switch leads, that’s just the nature of the beast.”

Mott said he would consider the Grade 3 Orchid, to be run at 1 3/8 miles here on April 1, for Suffused’s next start.