Twirling Queen finds turf to her liking, takes Mamzelle Stakes
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Twirling Queen looked like she could be a useful dirt horse after winning her debut on that surface. But dirt, it turns out, may be her least favorite footing. Twirling Queen in February and March won consecutive races over the synthetic Tapeta track at Gulfstream, and on Saturday at Churchill Downs she aced her turf debut, capturing the $225,000 Mamzelle Stakes by three-quarters of a length.
Jockey Francisco Arrieta, riding Twirling Queen for the first time, gave her a great trip in this turf sprint for 3-year-old fillies.
Hot Beach broke like a rocket from an outside post and had a couple lengths on the field after several strides. Twirling Queen also was away alertly and came up the inside to race closest to Hot Beach after a furlong, but when Imaboutago ranged up outside the pacesetter, applying pressure, Arrieta eased back and found his way outside the two leaders before hitting the far turn. Twirling Queen maneuvered into ideal position, the filly seized the lead from Hot Beach at the furlong grounds, finishing fast enough to hold clear runs from Toupie and Cloudwalker, the former beating the latter out of second by a half-length.
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Favored Imaboutago faded to 11th, while Nice as Pie finished fourth, breaking her four-race winning streak. Twirling Queen clocked 1:03.12 for 5 1/2 furlongs over a firm course and paid $23.44.
After a four-start Kentucky dirt campaign at age 2, Twirling Queen, owned by G U Racing Stable, was moved to trainer Jose D’Angelo in Florida, where she won a first-level allowance race on Tapeta on Feb. 8 and a stakes March 24 in a race carded for turf but moved to Tapeta. D’Angelo had been working the filly on turf and saw enough to ship her from the Palm Meadows training center to Churchill, where Twirling Queen extended her 3-year-old winning streak to three.
By the good turf-sprint sire Twirling Candy and out of a mare, Adventurous Lady, by the good turf-sprint sire Kantharos, this filly is bred to run on grass. On Saturday, she did so for the first time and ran to her pedigree.
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