Tom Acker, Allen Racing LLC and Bloom Racing Stables LLC’s Skye Diamonds flew home to capture the $200,000 Great Lady M Stakes (G2) at Los Alamitos on Saturday.
Constellation led the way through splits of :22.26 and :44.64 while dueling with Pretty N Cool. Meanwhile, Skye Diamonds stalked the early pace while settled off the rail by jockey Tiago Pereira. Fanning four wide into the lane, Skye Diamonds took command in the stretch and pulled off to be 2 1/2 lengths clear on the wire from Constellation.
Skye Diamonds paid $6.40 as the 2-1 second choice for finishing 6 1/2 furlongs on the fast main track in 1:14.79. Constellation, the near 7-2 third pick, had 2 1/4 lengths to spare on 6-5 favorite Finest City, with Pretty N Cool and Cuddle Alert completing the order under the wire.
Skye Diamonds is now 15-8-4-0, $449,150 in her career. The four-year-old daughter of First Dude was first campaigned by breeder Donald Dizney and conditioned by Mike Machowsky, for whom she broke her maiden at Los Alamitos in December 2015. She ran twice in stakes contests for those connections before being claimed last August at Del Mar and sent to trainer Bill Spawr.
After taking a $5,000 claimer, Skye Diamonds began competing against allowance/optional claiming rivals. She finished second last November, captured her season opener on January 7 by 1 1/4 lengths and then another race in mid-February by 5 3/4 lengths.
The California-bred miss returned to the stakes ranks in the Dream Summer Stakes on March 26 and prevailed by 1 1/4 lengths. She just missed by a half-length to the classy Vale Dori in the Adoration Stakes (G3) prior to this one on May 7, and earned her first graded credit in this spot.
Skye Diamonds is the first registered foal out of the winning Johannesburg mare Exonerated and counts as her fifth dam Broodmare of the Year and blue-hen mare Best in Show.
