La Tia takes them all the way in the Athenia

 

Annecdote was made an even money favorite by the betting public in the Athenia (G3) based on the four-year-old's impressive American debut victory in the Noble Damsel (G3) a month earlier. The Christophe Clement trainee had to run on a Belmont Park turf course that had taken a great deal of rain in the prior day or so, and could only manage a fifth place place finish behind the winner La Tia, who was able to take the field of ten gate to wire with the help of a well-measured ride by Joel Rosario.

La Tia is based in Chicago and is trained by Armando De la cerda. The five-year-old mare came to New York with an impressive record of 21: 8-1-5 with two wins on the turf and six on synthetic surfaces. Her turf victories came in the spring of 2013, with one coming on a yielding grass course at Arlington Park and the other time on good turf. Clearly La Tia liked the give in the Belmont inner turf course.

The same could not be said about Annecdote. Earlier in the week knowing that heavy rain was imminent, Clement expressed his concerns, "I don't think she'll like it too soft, so we'll have to keep an eye on the weather forecast. Of course, I'm not thrilled with [post 12], especially going 1 1/16 miles."

While La Tia broke quickly and immediately took control of the race, Annecdote came out of the gate very alertly and settled nicely in fifth place. Rosario and the Chicago invader were able to set very comfortable early fractions of :25.22 and :48.83. At the top of the stretch it appeared that Annecdote was ready to make her move, but she came up empty. La Tia was able to keep going and she had just enough to hold off the final surges of Byrama and Overheard. 

Jockey Rosario got to know La Tia in her prior race at Woodbine in the Canadian (G2) on Sept. 14. That day, on a firm turf course, he was not able to ration out the mare’s early speed. "They pressured me last time. The stretch in Woodbine is longer than here, and that day they finished up very strong. She ran a good race and got beat by some very good horses. I was very confident with her today and knew she was going to give me 100 percent."

Trainer De la cerda concurred, "They pushed her too much in the last race. I was a little concerned with it having rained here, but she ran well on a good course last time, and when I saw the [other] speed horse was scratched, I felt better. She may run one more time this year but I don't know where."