Dreaming of Julia outduels My Happy Face

 

The grade one Frizette basically became a match race between Dreaming of Julia and My Happy Face after two horses were late scratches at the gate. My Happy Face, who was coming off her 21 length maiden victory at Saratoga, set the early fractions of :23.22 and :46.19 with Dreaming of Julia running just outside of her hip. Coming around the turn Dreaming of Julia took the lead and it looked like she was going to pull away to another easy victory.

 

 

However, My Happy Face dug in while running along the rail and pulled even with the Stonestreet Stables filly, and they then battled nose to nose. Dreaming of Julia managed to get the victory by a head as they hit the wire virtually in tandem. The winner paid $2.30 and the final time of the race was 1:37.10.

 

The race was delayed because Roveing Patrol flipped in the gate.  It took 15 minutes for her to be removed from under the starting gate. The horse had recently moved to the barn of Ben Cecil. The incident also caused the late scratch of Sweet Shirley Mae. The Frizette ended up having a field of four.

 

Jockey John Velazquez, who rode Dreaming of Julia, talked about how the gate incident changed the race, “The scratches changed the race; it went from being a lot of speed to me having to do the dirty job and not let [My Happy Face] get away.”

 

Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Dreaming of Julia, described the battle, “We knew that the filly that finished second [My Happy Face] was very talented. You’re talking about two fillies that have won their last couple of races by a long way. They were running into a headwind down the backside and it was pretty fast fractions. With the track is starting to dry out a little bit and with the long wait [at the starting gate], it was demanding. I think with the scratches, on paper, it turned into a virtual match race. Most match races, the speed horse has the edge, so we had to kind of take it to her a little bit. We hope [to run in The Breeders’ Cup]; we were looking at today as a prep, so we hope she comes out of it well.”

 

Five winners of the Frizette have gone on success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies:  My Miss Aurelia 2011, Indian Blessing 2007, Storm Flag Flying 2002, Storm Song 2006, and Meadow Star 1990. None of those five were run at Santa Anita.

 

The victory in this “Win and You’re In” event puts Dreaming of Julia into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies field along with the other recent grade one winners: Executiveprivilege and Spring in the Air.

 

With the Breeders’ Cup less than a month away there will be plenty of time to debate which horse will be the favorite in this East versus West versus Canada edition of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.