When the time came to dig in, Sondra Bender’s PROMENADE GIRL (Carson City)
re-rallied in the closing yards of Sunday’s $294,000
Molly
Pitcher Breeders’ Cup H. (G2) to deny 1-2 favorite Round Pond (Awesome Again).
The Lawrence Murray trainee gained the early advantage on the rail just ahead of Lexi
Star (Crypto Star) while getting away with an easy first quarter of :24 2/5 and stepping up slightly to travel a half-mile in :47 4/5
and three-quarters in 1:11 3/5. Round Pond had been tracking in
third in the three path, and nearing the quarter pole, ranged up to engage the
leader, setting the stage for a prolonged stretch duel with Promenade Girl.
Promenade Girl drifted out slightly entering the stretch, causing Round Pond
to shift farther outside as well. The pair battled head to head in the stretch,
completing a mile in 1:36 2/5. Round Pond gained a narrow lead in deep stretch, but Promenade Girl recovered to dig in determinedly on the rail and come
back to snatch the victory by a head.
“We didn’t necessarily want the lead, but I told (jockey) Jeremy (Rose) that
if she broke well, to go on with it,” Murray said. “She was really game in the
stretch.”
“I got away clean and went on with it,” Rose said. “Round Pond got a neck, head in front of me at the
eighth pole. I hit my filly left-handed and I could feel her coming back.”
“(Round Pond) ran a good race considering she’s been out so long,” trainer
Michael Matz commented, alluding to the fact that his filly was making her first
start in more than five months. The four-year-old bay had not raced since her
narrow victory in the March 11 Azeri Breeders’ Cup S. (G3) at Oaklawn Park, her
final outing for her previous trainer, John Servis.
“I was disappointed with the result, but I was pleased with her,” Matz
added.
Sent off as the 5-2 second favorite, Promenade Girl returned $7.60, $2.80 and
$2.10 while leading exotics of $15 (exacta) and $25.30 for the 1-4-6 trifecta ($1).
Round Pond paid $2.20 and $2.10, while the 6-1 La Reason (Labeeb [GB]) got up to
garner the bronze spot, giving back $2.10. Lexi Star and Friel’s for Real
(Sword Dance [Ire]) completed the order of finish. Capeside Lady (Cape Town) was
scratched from the race.
Now a five-time stakes winner, Promenade Girl had annexed the Golden
Sylvia H. in her prior start. Her first graded stakes win improved her record to 14-8-1-3 while
boosting her bankroll to $460,540.
Bred by her owner and Howard M. Bender in Maryland, the
four-year-old bay filly is out of the winning Pleasant Colony mare Promenade Colony,
whose latest foals are an unraced two-year-old filly named Dattts Awesome
(Awesome Again) and a yearling colt by Grand Slam. Promenade Colony is a full
sister to multiple Grade 2 winner and Grade 1-placed Dance Colony, and she is a
half-sister to Grade 1 winners No Review (Nodouble) and Another Review
(Buckaroo). Like Saturday’s Bernard Baruch H. (G2) winner Ashkal Way (Ire) (Ashkalani),
Promenade Girl descends from the female line of Goofed (*Court Martial).