No denying Spanish Queen in the Grade 1 American Oaks
On paper, the six-horse field for the Grade 1 American Oaks looked relatively evenly matched. The bettors had a different idea, though, and jumped on the 2-1 morning line favorite, Spanish Queen, to make her a heavy 7-10 choice at post time. It turns out they knew what they were doing, as Spanish Queen methodically wore down the pacesetter through the lane to win the weekend’s only Grade 1 race by a measured three-quarters of a length.
Ridden by Brice Blanc, the Richard Baltas trained miss found a comfortable tracking position down on the inside, as the recent winner of the Edgewood Stakes, Feathered made all the pace in front of a tightly packed bunch. In third early, through early splits of :23.97 and :47.68, Spanish Queen was content to let Mrs McDougal be the one to apply early pressure to Feathered. The order of the American Oaks six remained largely unchanged as the leader hit the six furlong mark in 1:12.24, but the group began to bunch even closer together on the far turn, and by the time they hit the homestretch, it was any horse’s race.
Momentarily behind horses, Spanish Queen and Blanc deftly angled off the rail to have clear sailing for the sprint to the wire. Three-time stakes winner Consumer Credit, trying to make a similar rally, was not so lucky and had to wait to shift four-wide in mid-stretch. By that time, the dark bay favorite was already well on her way to forging to the lead. Feathered proved to be a game competitor, but the stretch run of Spanish Queen was not to be denied. The heavy favorite edged clear late to win by nearly a length over Feathered, while an unlucky Consumer Credit finished up full of run to come in third, another three-quarters of a length farther back.
“She’s just eating up the ground and getting better with every race,” said Blanc. “She keeps improving and she loves her job. She has started trusting me more so I can do a little more with her. I think she’s learning how to be a good racehorse.”
Spanish Queen is a homebred daughter of Tribal Rule, out of the Unusual Heat mare, Spanish Bunny. The California-bred raised her lifetime record to 4-3-1-0, all on Santa Anita’s turf course. Only a narrow loss by a neck in the Grade 3 Providencia, which was her second lifetime start, interrupts an otherwise perfect record. The winner’s share of the $400,000 purse raised her career earnings to $423,600. An impressive total to be sure considering she only began her racing career less than three months ago.
From that impressive maiden special weight score against other Cal-bred fillies, and then the near miss in the Providencia, the Jack Nakkashian & Harry Bederian owned filly won her first stakes race by proving best in the Grade 2 Honeymoon on May 3. Now less than four weeks later, Spanish Queen is racing’s newest Grade 1 winner. It was an especially happy victory for the winning training, Richard Baltas, who was celebrating a birthday today.
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“It was a pretty big deal when Big Macher won the (Grade 1) Bing Crosby Stakes last July at Del Mar), but I was never favored in the Grade 1 race like I was today with Spanish Queen,” said Baltas. “There’s so much pressure, and when you win, there’s a big sigh of congratulations and relief. This is a very special horse and I just got lucky to get her. This is the best birthday present I could ever have.”