Yuki gives her all to hold sway in Dark Mirage Stakes
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CYPRESS, Calif. - Yuki led throughout Saturday’s $125,000 Dark Mirage Stakes at Los Alamitos to win her first stakes in the United States, helped significantly by a confident ride from jockey Hector Berrios.
Yuki led by 2 1/2 lengths with a quarter-mile remaining in the one-mile race. Berrios was able to coax the 4-year-old filly along through the stretch to hold off a determined Smoothlikebuttah (9-1) in the final furlong.
Yuki ($9.80) ran a mile in 1:37.88, winning by 1 1/4 lengths. Yuki earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 76.
“I went to the lead and tried to get her to relax,” Berrios said. “She got tired in the stretch. She really tried.”
Trouville (8-1) closed from sixth to finish third, followed by 4-5 favorite Ganadora, Angel Nadeshiko, Gila, and Chismosa in the field of seven.
Ganadora, who won the 2022 Dark Mirage Stakes, stumbled at the start on Saturday and did not take her customary position at the front of the field. She raced in third and faded from contention in the stretch, finishing 2 1/2 lengths behind Yuki.
Yuki set fractions of 23.49 seconds for the opening quarter-mile and 46.79 for a half-mile, leading by as much as a length.
Trained by Amador Sanchez for owner and breeder Haras Lizzie of Chile, Yuki has won 5 of 13 starts and earned $182,675. By the Grand Slam stallion The Lumber Guy, Yuki was a Group 2 winner in Chile at about 1 1/4 miles on dirt last November.
Now 4 years old, she has won 2 of 4 starts in the United States this year in a season that began with a third-place finish in an allowance race at Gulfstream Park on July 1. Yuki won an allowance race at Del Mar on Aug. 5 and was second in the Tranquility Lake Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on dirt at Del Mar on Sept. 4.
The Dark Mirage Stakes was the richest race of the two-week September meeting at Los Alamitos that ends on Sunday. Santa Anita opens its autumn meeting on Friday, highlighted by the Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 3-4.
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