The Diana – Grade I
1 1/8 Mile Turf Stake Purse $500.000 Filly & Mare 4 Year Olds And Up.

Races like this can always leave you scratching your head. Here we had the best turf routing females in the game for the last two years taking on each other in race that looked to propel one of them to BC favoritism. However, as happens it was not to be as the horse that ended up winning had only won one turf race before today and was easily brushed aside by La Terrifiant last time out. That’s not to say in HRP land that this was an impossible winner, of course as the dust settles, we can pick out bits of form that gave this one a chance and if any trainer in this game can produce a shock result it is TwinTowers Racing.
So here is how they finished and how this 300/1 chance beat the best in the game.

1st Starting Over TwinTowersRacing Velazquez J R

So first of all, this is a grade one winner, yes it was on the dirt, but I have said many a time that the surfaces on HRP are not the same as real life and good horses can run on both. Secondly, she proved last time that she can run on turf when running second in the NY even though it looked like she was easily beaten by La Terrifiant that day. So, what caused this result and such a big turnaround with the runner up? Well, it may be tenuous, but I think the draw had something to do with it. This horse has run four times from gate five and won three of them, two grade ones and a grade three, coincidence maybe, but it’s a fairly large sample. Whatever the reason and I guess we will never know, she actually won this pretty comfortably coming from off the pace and running away by a length. Now the way HRP seems to work that form will be turned around again before the end of the year, but if she gets gate five in the BC, I will be piling my Disney Dollars on her.

2nd La Terrifiant Smokey Stover Centeno D E

Last time out she totally dominated the NY from the front, something she doesn’t do too often but we have known her for years now and she is always close up, so it was no surprise to see the great mare taking a stalk today off a decent pace. As they hit the stretch, she made her move, and it looked like once again this great horse was going to win but the crowd was silenced when Starting Over came sweeping past in the final furlong. In a game where it is very hard to run the same race twice this great mare just keeps going great races and let’s face it, she beat all the best ones today which would’ve been enough to start dreaming that she would add another BC to her amazing record but Starting Over just came out of the blue.

3rd Demanding Commander Mb Stables Saez L

Kept the horses she needed to watch in her sights, and it looked on the turn like she would go head-to-head with La Terrifiant in a stretch battle for victory. As we often see though, the stalkers can be vulnerable down the stretch when the pace is good and sure enough there was one lurking just behind ready to strike. This was another solid effort from the filly who is doing really well for a four-year-old at this time of year and I think she will be going pretty close come November.

4th Painville Mo Mentum Farm Dettori L

Went with La Terrifiant and Demanding Commander all the way and seemed to be settling down for a dynamic battle to the line but like the other two was brushed aside by the swooper. I still maintain that at this level a mile is as far as she wants to go and that may have been a factor, but she still went to the line with just necks and noses between the best of the turf fillies and mares of the year so you can’t knock this effort.

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES