Traffic trouble can't stop Neige Blanche from winning Astra Stakes

ARCADIA, Calif. - Neige Blanche performed as expected to win Monday’s Grade 3 Astra Stakes at Santa Anita – after jockey Juan Hernandez guided the 5-year-old mare out of a brief traffic jam on the turn.

Neige Blanche was racing behind pacesetter 24-1 Frose and 3-1 Disappearing Act and was without racing room for a moment at a pivotal time a quarter-mile from the finish. When space developed in early stretch, Neige Blanche quickened rapidly to catch stretch leader Disappearing Act in the final sixteenth of the race at 1 1/2 miles on turf for fillies and mares.

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“I felt like I had a lot of horse,” Hernandez said. “I was waiting for some room. It was a little tight at the quarter pole. I was waiting.

“She broke good and she wanted to be covered up behind horses. She loves the distance.”

Neige Blanche ($2.60) was timed in 2:32.27 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 86.

“I was sweating on the turn,” trainer Leonard Powell said.

Disappearing Act finished a length behind Neige Blanche, and six lengths clear of 22-1 Scherzo in third. Frose and Reiwa completed the order of finish in the small field.

Disappearing Act, ridden by Flavien Prat, was second for the first mile and led by two lengths with a furlong remaining.

“She ran a very good race,” Prat said. “When I asked her to make a move, I knew she could sprint home. The winner was just better.”

The $125,000 Astra Stakes was the fourth stakes win in her last six starts for Neige Blanche, who races for Madaket Stable, Laura de Seroux, Marsha Naify and Mathilde Powell, Leonard’s wife.

A French-bred filly by the Anabaa stallion Anodin, Neige Blanche has won 7 of 16 starts and earned $390,280. Neige Blanche won two Grade 3 races in 2021 – the Santa Barbara Stakes here last May and the Red Carpet Handicap in her final start of the year at Del Mar in November.

Monday’s win came at a poignant time for Leonard Powell. His father, noted French bloodstock agent David Powell, died after a lengthy illness over the weekend in France at the age of 73.

David Powell had a decades-long involvement in international bloodstock in both flat and jump racing.