Tequilaandtherapy holds off unlucky Grateful My Love in Golden State Juvenile Fillies
?q=100)
DEL MAR, Calif. – A turf specialist running on dirt, Tequilaandtherapy sprang a $24 upset Friday in the $175,000 Golden State Juvenile Fillies, race 3 and the first dirt stakes of Breeders’ Cup weekend at Del Mar. A turf-to-dirt omen, perhaps, for City of Troy in the BC Classic?
Tequilaandtherapy won the seven-furlong Golden State Juvenile Fillies by a nose over unlucky Grateful My Love. It was three-quarters of a length back to third-place finisher In the Air Tonight, the 2-1 favorite by $745 over Hot Girl Walk, who stumbled at the start, got shuffled back, and finished last of nine.
Edwin Maldonado was riding Tequilaandtherapy for the first time in a race; he had been on the Doug O’Neill-trained filly in the morning. The winner, sired by Mrazek, was shortening to one turn and switching surfaces after finishing fourth in the Grade 3 Surfer Girl Stakes at Santa Anita, a turf mile won by BC Juvenile Fillies Turf entrant Thought Process.
“She came from off the pace last time, it was turf,” Maldonado noted. He said that in Friday’s dirt stakes, Tequilaandtherapy “broke great, I didn’t want her to gas out early because the track is a little heavy.”
Maldonado allowed Tequilaandtherapy settle in sixth, and creep forward on the turn. He cut her loose into the lane, opened up by a length and one-half in the stretch, and barely held in a slow 1:24.91. Tequilaandtherapy, now 2 for 6, is owned by Here We Go Brothers.
Grateful My Love, a maiden making just her second start, got stuck in traffic into the stretch, came outside, and finished fastest while improving significantly over her fifth-place debut. Grateful My Love might have been best.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.