The Mother Goose (Grade 1)- $300.000 Purse
BEL- For Fillies Three Years Old
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Dirt
July 2, 2016

If you haven’t watched The Mother Goose yet, make sure you fire it up and take a look.  If nothing else, do it because you want to watch a Grade 1 on HRP that does not look like mostly every other Grade 1 or most any other race that takes place in our virtual world.  The Mother Goose was different, as two horses jumped out to a lead that put the rest of the field nearly off the viewer.  As they couldn’t measure up in the stretch, a fascinating battle took place between Shake It Off and City Bus, and the end result would be a field separated by 13 lengths from first to last.  The winner was Shake It Off a filly trained by Australia Wide who’s recently had some close calls in the “Filly Triple Crown”, but gets her signature win, so far, in this race. K J Desormeaux was along for the ride on the winner as each pick up their first Mother Goose trophy.  The time of the race was 1:41.55, which is a new stake record.  Congratulations to the winners, here’s a bigger look.

1st- 2- Shake It Off (4/5)- Our eventual winner from Australia Wide was not drawn into the speed battle taking place up front between Suitably Discreet and Lady Of Lourdes, and would instead sit in a comfortable position running with the rest of the pack about ten lengths from the leaders, but within a length of third place City Bus.  As they moved into the turn, City Bus pulled away from this pack by a couple lengths, and Shake It Off would be on the inside of three wide behind her.  Cleared Drill and Minda in the turn, and as City Bus moved to the rail, Shake It Off moved to position herself for an outside pass of the two tiring early speed demons.  Once they were passed, she was even with City Bus with a furlong to go and the two of them were now set to decide the race between them.  Shake It Off would have a little more saved up in the tank, and would be able to pull away from City Bus as well by a length and would win while driving all the way to the wire, in 1:41.55!  Shake It Off is a three year old filly by Quench and out of Majic Dust.  She was bred in Pennsylvania by Australia Wide as a fourth quarter two year old, and the two of them have been together throughout. Congratulations to the connections!

2nd- 7- City Bus (12/1)- Initially, the Tiratzo entry started well out of the gate, and in normal circumstances may have been up on the lead early.   R A Baze quickly understood that the two up front were going to race between themselves at this point, and backed City Bus off to lead the rest of the pack about nine lengths from the leaders. Heading into the turn, she had a length advantage over the rest of the field.  Moved to the rail at the top of the stretch, and made the two frontrunners look silly as she easily went by.  City Bus ran strong in the stretch, but Shake It Off was simply not going to be denied.

3rd- 3- Drill (23/1)-   Despite her stablemate stealing the show and setting up some very fast fractions and dragging Lady Of Lourdes with her, Drill was not able to do her part for Mb Stables.  She allowed Shake It Off and City Bus to be in front of her around the opening turn, and as they moved into the stretch, it was pretty clear that they were going to be in better position to capitalize.  The best that she could do is hold off Minda for 3rd.

4th- 6- Minda (14/1)- The John Henry entry went right to the back early on in the race, but would advance to fourth in the backstretch, pulling up alongside Shake It Off still while being abut ten lengths from the lead.  In the turn and into the stretch, while Shake It Off was setting up her big run to the finish, Minda did not have the same explosive stretch drive.  Instead, she would drift out a little into the stretch.  Matched strides while battling Drill for third, but did not threaten the top two.

5th- 5- Laffin Diplomat (8/1)- Really thought this race would set up perfectly for the D J C Stables entry, but she seemed to have problems of her own in this race. Instead of leading the group of horses that would not be baited by Suitably Discreet, she trailed the field early, giving three lengths to the likes of Shake It Off and City Bus.  In the stretch, she did not fire the way others did.

6th- 4- Lady of Lourdes (9/5)- Burst out of the starting gate, as if she thought she had a chance to beat Suitably Discreet.  This was stunning, given that it should not have been a secret that Suitably Discreet could ruin her day.  She ran early fractions for Yahudi Stables that put her out of her element, and she would match strides with the rabbit in the stretch as well as they rapidly backed out of it.

7th- 1- Suitably Discreet (33/1)- Did what Mb Stables brought her here to do and did it well. Dragged Lady of Lourdes out to an enormous early advantage of nine lengths on third place Shake It Off, setting the opening quarter in :21.95 and half in :44.95.  Midway in the turn is when she began to run out of gas, though at six furlongs she went 1:08.78, a time that can win some good six furlong races. Unfortunately for the trainer, it wasn’t Drill who took advantage of her run.

Track: Fast
Time: :21⁴  :44²  1:08³  1:41²

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 2 – 7 Paid 38.70
$1 Trifecta: 2 – 7 – 3 Paid 1,097.30

Scratched: None

— NS

Categories: Grade I, STAKES ARTICLES