The MTH Oaks (Grade 3)- $250.000 Purse
MTH- For Fillies Three Years Old
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Dirt
July 31, 2022

With a name like Dominance, you better be good. Heading into the MTH Oaks, this filly had been successful, but had never taken on a stakes crowd before. It would be her fourth stake for Nakamura Stables, who claimed her for $65.000 at the start of the year and she would knock off a pretty good crowd in that stakes debut. She used a style that can be tough to find success with, coming from off the pace (and it wasn’t a fast one, that’s my next recap) to win by a length. The victory is the second for Nakamura, but you have to go all the way back to 2013 to find the previous win, which was by the late Pariah Delight. L Luzzi becomes a first time winner of the race. Congratulations to them! The time of the win was 1:41.93, which is among the better winning times for the race. Let’s take a look!

(1/4 Mile- :23.50)- J Loveberry, a late jockey switch from D Moran, would ask Ask Forfree Delivery to take the early lead, and Arindel’s filly would oblige, opening up by about two lengths. Three stalkers were in behind her, in a similar alignment that we will see in these races. Venezia, on the outside for D J C Racing Stables, is second, a head in front of the Royalty Stables- trained Greta who was right to her inside, and Smokey Stover’s Jinxed Artist on the rail. Behind them, humongous longshot Stinky Rene (TwinTowersRacing) is by herself, but probably not because of her odor. The two D’s are at the back, with Densmore (Big Guns Stables) slightly ahead of our eventual winner from Nakamura Stables, Dominance.

(½ Mile- :47.15)- Ask Forfree Delivery is the leader down the backstretch, and she has not been challenged yet. That advantage is two lengths as Jinxed Artist takes the second spot by half a length, being a little quicker than Venezia and Greta down the backstretch. Stinky Rene holds fourth, but is starting to fall back into the clutches of Densmore and Dominance. Neither of them had made any push forward as of yet.

(Top of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- Ask Forfree Delivery is still the race leader, but Jinxed Artist makes a strong move in the turn and is preparing to pull up to her outside in the stretch. There’s a gap of about two lengths to the rest of the field, and in those closest spots were Venezia and Greta and the leaders had only put more distance on them. Stinky Rene had the rail and an opening but was doing nothing with it. Dominance was still at the back with Densmore, with about four lengths to make up.

(Finish- 1:41.93)- As soon as we moved into the stretch, Dominance became a bit fortunate for a large gap to open up right between Venezia and Greta, and her jockey, L Luzzi, knew that there would be no time to waste: he needed to pounce on it now. While most in the stands where looking at the battle for the lead between Ask Forfree Delivery and Jinxed Artist, Dominance was positioning herself for a while. Still, with a furlong to go, it didn’t seem as though she would have time to get up to the top two. But in the closing moments, she was twice as good as those frontrunners were, making up the deficit to them quite quickly and sliding between them with ease. Once there, the race was hers, and she would go on to win by a length. Jinxed Artist gets the photo for place over Ask Forfree Delivery, with Stinky Rene getting a “because someone had to finish fourth” fourth place check, narrowly over Venezia. Greta and Densmore round it out.

About The Winner- Dominance, trained by Nakamura Stables and ridden to victory by L Luzzi, is a three year old filly by Punch Line and is out of Red Corvette. She was bred in California as a third quarter two year old by Jediminds Stable and acquired by Nakamura Stables with a $62.500 claim in January 2022. Congratulations to the connections! The win is her third in eight starts, and her first stake win. Her career earnings are now $236.400.

Track: Fast
Time: :23²  :47   1:10⁴  1:41⁴

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 2 – 5 Paid 72.30
$1 Trifecta: 2 – 5 – 3 Paid 30.60

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade III, STAKES ARTICLES