Tates Creek comes from far back

ELMONT, N.Y. - Tates Creek took advantage of a swift pace and a turn back in distance to post a one-length win in Saturday's Grade 3, $114,400 Noble Damsel Handicap at Belmont Park.

Taken well back off a hot pace by Jerry Bailey, Tates Creek rallied four wide in the stretch and ran down Amonita inside the sixteenth pole to record her seventh victory from 11 career starts. Her final time of 1:32.79 for the mile established a stakes record for the Noble Damsel, which was run at 1 1/16 miles before 1997.

Quick Blue, the longest shot on the board at 40-1, was gunned to the lead by Jose Espinzoa and set fractions of 22.48 and 45.03 seconds while being chased by Wander Mom. Meanwhile, Bailey had Tates Creek in sixth position, six lengths off the pace.

Bailey guided Tates Creek ($3.90) to the outside around the turn and into the stretch, and she kicked home strongly. Tates Creek, a Juddmonte Farms homebred daughter of Rahy, pushed her career earnings to $647,607.

"I was wondering what he was doing," winning trainer Bobby Frankel said of Bailey. "I guess he didn't want to run up there and get stopped and get shut off, so he let those horses outrun him and come around. She probably runs her best races coming from out of it a little bit rather than being up close."

Tates Creek had won the Grade 2 Diana Handicap in dramatic fashion over Voodoo Dancer on July 27, but then tried unsuccessfully to stretch out to 1 3/16 miles and finished last in the Grade 1 Beverly D. at Arlington.

"She's better at a mile than a mile and three sixteenths," Bailey said. "A mile and an eighth is stretching her. The Beverly D. was probably beyond her limit. This is much better for her kick."

Frankel said Tates Creek would most likely run in California the remainder of the year, targeting such races as the $200,000 Las Palmas at Santa Anita on Nov. 3 and possibly the $500,000 Matriarch at Hollywood Park on Dec. 1.

Cole: I'm All Yours rallies

I'm All Yours, a beaten favorite in the Kingston and West Point handicaps, bounced back by rallying from seventh to win the $83,825 Ashley T. Cole Handicap by a neck over Haggs Castle. It was a head back to Celtic Sky, who had won both the Kingston and West Point.

Trainer Todd Pletcher felt I'm All Yours raced too close to the pace in the West Point when he finished fourth. Saturday, Bailey kept I'm All Yours six lengths off the moderate pace established by Reluctant Groom.

Bailey rallied I'm All Yours in the three path down the stretch, taking over from Reluctant Groom inside the sixteenth pole, and holding off a slow-starting Haggs Castle.

In winning for the ninth time in 17 starts for Anstu Stables, I'm All Yours ($5.90) covered the nine furlongs in 1:49.13 over firm turf.

Pletcher said I'm All Yours will go for a repeat victory in the $150,000 Mohawk Handicap on Oct. 19.