NEWS
Lilacs and Lace pulls Ashland Stakes upset
Posted: Saturday, April 09, 2011 8:40 PM
LILACS AND LACE
PhotosByZ.com/Thoroughbred Times
To view a video replay of the Ashland Stakes, click here.
by Myra Lewyn
The second-longest shot on the board at 48.70 to-1 odds, Lilacs and Lace led at every point of call in the $400,000 Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) and won with ease while establishing herself as a filly to watch in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) next month.
The chestnut filly from the first crop of Three Chimneys Farm resident stallion Flower Alley scored by one length after taking the lead soon after the start and comfortably held back Grade 3 winner Wyomia, whose rider, Freddy Lenclud, lost a stirrup in the final furlong.
Delightful Mary spurted into command out of the gate, but Lilacs and Lace overtook her before the first turn. Delightful Mary pressed her through fractions of :24.04, :47.95, and 1:11.90 before Lilacs and Lace opened a 1½-length lead in early stretch en route to the win
Lilacs and Lace covered 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.73 on the synthetic Polytrack surface for her second triumph in three starts this season
“She broke well out of the gate,” winning jockey Javier Castellano said. “We talked about it before the race that if she broke well, take it from there. Don’t take anything away from the horse. It worked out great.”
Lilacs and Lace rebounded from a fourth-place finish in the Bourbonette Oaks (G3) on March 26 at Turfway Park, a performance that followed a 1½-length win in the California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields on January 1.
The Ashland victory was the third of the afternoon for trainer John Terranova II and Castellano.
Wyomia outfinished multiple graded stakes winner and 2.10-to-1 favorite Kathmanblu by 2¼ lengths for second in the nine-horse field. Kathmanblu was the 7-to-2 favorite in the Kentucky Oaks Future Wager pool. The $1-million race is set for May 6 at Churchill Downs.
Kentucky-bred Lilacs and Lace, who is campaigned by breeders Judy Hicks and Kathryn Nikkel and partner James Covello, improved to three wins and two seconds from eight career starts. She is out of the Seattle Slew mare Refinement, whose dam, Stella Madrid, was a four-time Grade 1 winner. Lilacs and Lace’s third dam is 1976 champion sprinter My Juliet.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Myra Lewyn is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Leonard, Lawndale, CA on April 10, 2011 at 04:41 PM
And to think at the start of the year I was watching Lilac running at Golden Gate in the Oaks to now winning the Ashland, what a big improvement this one has made, you go girl, continue having a big year. Congrat's to the connection's......
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