The Dinner Party Stakes (Grade 2)- $250.000 Purse
PIM- For Three Year Olds and Upward
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Turf
May 21, 2022

The running of the PRK would be getting closer, and while everyone anticipated the start of that, we still had the running of the Grade 2 Dinner Party Stakes to take care of. This is a race that people would recognize as The Dixie Stakes from years past, but the name of the race changed this year. A few horses seemed as though they had a great chance to win, but at the end would see an old familiar face in the winner’s circle as Aer Stables scored the victory with his filly, Droopy. Last month, she won the $100.000 Woodhaven, so in taking this next step she is certainly establishing herself as a top horse in this division. The win is the first in the race for both Aer Stables and jockey Mario Gutierrez. Congratulations! The winning time of 1:39.86 won’t go down as one of the quicker winning times when the race was run at this distance on firm turf, but it was all that was needed. Let’s take a look!

(1/4 Mile- :23.37)- Four horses vie for the early lead down the front stretch, but it would be the one of the outside, Maxmillion Farm’s Louisiana Chicken, emerging as the quickest of the group and taking the lead by a length into the turn. They are three wide behind her, with the filly, Molecule, for D J C Racing Stables, running in the middle with a head in front of the boys on each side of her. That would be Telladifferentstory, from Nakamura Stables on the inside and Bnegn And Eggs, from TwinTowersRacing, on her outside. A length behind them, and about three and a half lengths from the lead is where we would find our eventual winner, Droopy, for Aer Stables. Threshold’s Twenty Twenty ran right beside her and at the back, it’s Bright Carat (Black N Gold Stable).

(½ Mile- :46.66)- Down the backstretch, Louisiana Chicken continues to run well and holds on to his lead but a challenger begins to emerge in the form of Molecule. The filly was no longer content to just stalk and pulls up to be within a length of him as they reach the end of the backstretch. We also see Droopy cut into his deficit a bit. He still runs fifth, behind Telladifferentstory and Bnegn And Eggs, but pulls up with them to make it three wide while setting his sights on moving ahead even more. Meanwhile Twenty Twenty dropped back and Bright Carat had not shown anything quite yet.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.7F To Go)- The lead would still belong to Louisiana Chicken as they reached the top of the stretch, but that was not going to last much longer. Droopy handled the turn very well, smoothly getting back Telladifferentstory and Bnegn And Eggs, and then doing the same to Molecule, who began to drop out of it. Now, there was just Louisiana Chicken to pass, and bu the time they were at the top of the stretch, he was within a length. Further back, Bright Carat was looking very good too, and loomed as potential biggest threat to Droopy. Bright Carat had been in the back throughout, but at the top of the turn, he looked for options and would take the wide route around the turn, and began to cut into the deficit quite well. He was now third, and needing to find a way to gain that length on Droopy since that one was also running well.

(Finish- 1:39.86)- Droopy claimed the lead early in the stretch from Louisiana Chicken, who, to his credit, put up a valiant fight for most of the stretch. Droopy would simply not be denied and now there was only Bright Carat to worry about. But that one, perhaps due to the wide trip in the turn, did not have enough power in his stride to get much closer to the leader. This would allow Droopy to win the race by a length over Bright Carat with Louisiana Chicken hanging on for third. Twenty Twenty was in his best stride way too late, but it gets fourth place spoils. Telladifferentstory disappoints in fifth, ahead of only Molecule and Bnegn And Eggs.

About The Winner- Droopy, trained by Aer Stables and ridden to victory by Mario Gutierrez, is a four year old gelding by Marry Me Mandy and is out of Miss Outofcontrol. He was bred in California as a first quarter two year old by Harrell Racing and was acquired by Aer Stables in January 2022 in a $22.000 private sale. The win is his fifth in eight starts, his third stake win and first graded win. His career earnings are now $347.080.

Track: Firm
Time: :23¹  :46³  1:09⁴  1:39⁴

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 7 – 2 Paid 52.50
$1 Trifecta: 7 – 2 – 6 Paid 64.00

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES