Yo Cuz leads start to finish in Maddie May Stakes
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - It was as easy as the betting public predicted.
Yo Cuz lived up to her 4-5 favoritism by cruising under Jose Ortiz to a front-running, 3 /4-length victory in Monday’s $100,000 Maddie May Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Aqueduct.
Stone Creator, the second choice at 5-2, chased Yo Cuz around the track but had to settle for second, 4 1/2 lengths ahead of Caragate. Reigning Chick, Thinking It Over, and Moam completed the order of finish. Captainsdaughter and Sandy’s Garden scratched.
Yo Cuz’s victory in the Maddie May came nine weeks after she won the $500,000 Fifth Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series here. While a far less lucrative purse, Ortiz thought enough of the filly to give up an off day at Gulfstream Park to come up and ride the 3-year-old New York-bred daughter of Laoban for trainer Bill Mott and Tom Gallo’s Dream Maker Racing.
“I like this filly, Bill asked me to come up and I said sure,” Ortiz said. “We won the $500,000 last time. This was just $100,000 but I really like her going forward, I think she’s very good.”
Despite breaking to the right from her outside draw, Yo Cuz quickly recovered and opened up a 1 1/2-length lead through an opening quarter in 23.41 seconds. Stone Creator, under Kendrick Carmouche, came off the rail and tried to stalk Yo Cuz from the outside, but never really applied much pressure.
Yo Cuz ran a half-mile in 46.91 seconds, six furlongs in 1:12.10, and covered the mile in 1:38.91. She returned $3.90.
“She has very good early speed and she put me where I wanted to be without using her,” Ortiz said. “I thought [Stone Creator] would probably go but I took the lead too easy and Kendrick said let him have it. His filly is very nice, but it was her first time going a mile and her second race.”
Leana Willaford, the New York-based assistant to Mott, said the instructions to Ortiz were just “to play the break.
“The horse on the rail I thought would show more speed but nobody wanted it and Jose went ahead and made an executive decision,” Willaford said.
Willaford said that Yo Cuz would likely be pointed to the $200,000 Park Avenue division of the New York Stallion Series going 6 1/2 furlongs here on April 24.