Viadera gives Brown fifth straight Noble Damsel victory

ELMONT, N.Y. - Viadera took advantage of a fast pace and a superior ride by Joel Rosario to reel-in stablemate Blowout late and win Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Noble Damsel Stakes, giving trainer Chad Brown his fifth straight victory in the one-mile turf stakes for fillies and mares at Belmont Park.

Brown actually ran 1-2-4 in the Noble Damsel Stakes as Noor Sahara finished fourth, three-quarters of a length behind Sweet Bye and Bye.

The win was the first from three U.S. starts for Viadera, a Juddmonte Farms homebred daughter of Bated Breath who began her career in Ireland with trainer Ger Lyons.

To get the win Saturday, Viadera had to run by her stubborn stablemate Blowout, who under John Velazquez set fractions of 22.17 seconds for the quarter, 44.85 for the half-mile and 1:08.38 for six furlongs while fending off the challenge of Sweet Bye and Bye.

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Blowout was still on the lead into deep stretch when Viadera, who was seventh early, rallied up the inside to get to the wire first. Blowout was second by three-quarters of a length over Sweet Bye and Bye.

Viadera, a daughter of Bated Breath, covered the mile in 1:32.06 and returned $13 as the fourth choice.

“Joel’s getting along with her well, he made a decision to stay inside there and that was probably the winning decision,” Brown said.

As impressed as Brown was with Viadera, he was equally, if not more, impressed with Blowout, who was making just her second start of the year. She was coming off a narrow loss to Sweet Bye and Bye in an allowance race at Saratoga.

“The fact that she nearly won and fought back, I don’t know that I have another horse that could do what she did today off those fractions at a mile,” Brown said. “She really ran a remarkable race.”

Brown said watching the early fractions “was hard to stomach, to be honest with you.” Brown added that after speaking with Velazquez, “I got the impression he didn’t feel he was going that fast. When I told him what the factions were, he looked surprised.”

Velazquez said Blowout was aggressive.

“I tried to keep her off the rail to relax her, but she went on,” he said. “The pace was fast, but she ran good.”

Rosario said that his decision to go to the inside was made easier when he saw Blowout off the rail in the stretch.

“She seemed like she was comfortable with being on the inside, it looked like she would fight,” Rosario said. “For a second I thought maybe I wasn’t going to get there, but she kept going, kept fighting and finally got there in the last part.”

Brown’s previous Noble Damsel victories came with Significant Form (2019), Uni (2018), Off Limits (2017) and Mrs. McDougal (2016).