Arena Elvira Grinds Out Falls City Win
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Carolyn Wilson’s Arena Elvira outdueled longshot Afleeting Lady in deep stretch to grind out a win in the 96th running
of the $193,725 Falls City Handicap (Grade II) for fillies and mares by a neck on Thanksgiving Day at Churchill Downs.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado, Arena Elvira raced near the inside rail about two lengths behind pacesetters Juanita
and Afleeting Lady as the former led the field
of eight through fractions of :24.40, :49.04 and 1:12.83. The leaders
got a jump on Arena Elvira on the final turn, but Alvarado switched her
to the outside and she wore down the competition in deep stretch for the
narrow win in 1:50.76 for 1 1/8 miles over
a fast track.
Arena Elvira has won seven of
her last nine starts – including four in a row – and seven of 12
overall. She collected her first graded stakes win in her previous
start, the Turnback the Alarm (GIII) at Aqueduct on
Nov. 4.
Arena Elvira is a
Kentucky-bred daughter of 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper out of the
Twining mare Two Item Limit. The victory was worth $116,506 and
increased Arena Elvira’s earnings to $391,436.
Sent to post as the
even-money favorite, Arena Elvira, who carried 121 pounds, returned $4,
$3 and $2.80. Afleeting Lady, who carried 116 pounds under Kent Desormeaux at odds of 13-1, returned $8 and $4.40 in
finishing three lengths in front of It’s Tea Time, who paid $5.20 to show under Manny Cruz while tacking 116 pounds. Juanita, Super Espresso, Brushed by a Star, Secret File and Riviera Chic completed the order of finish.
Spring Party and Ravi’s Song were scratched.
Mott, Churchill Downs’
all-time leader with 656 wins, is enjoying a dream Fall Meet beneath the
Twin Spires. This was his fourth stakes win of the 21-day meeting. He
also won the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic with
Drosselmeyer; the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic with Royal Delta; and the Cardinal Handicap (GIII) with Deluxe. Overall, he leads all trainers with 84 local stakes wins, which is a dozen more than runner-up D. Wayne Lukas.
This season, he boasts a record of 19-7-2-2—$4,144,208, which is good for a tie for fourth in the local trainer standings.
"It’s been good,” Mott said. “It’s not much fun when it doesn’t work out well, but it’s fun when it does work well.”
Arena Elvira also gave Mott his fourth win in the Falls City Handicap, one back of trainer Harvey Vanier’s record. Mott won the first division in 1985 with Donut’s Pride, the 1997 renewal with Feasibility
Study and the 2000 edition with Bordelaise-ARG.
FALLS CITY HANDICAP QUOTES
Bill Mott (by telephone from New York), trainer of Arena Elvira (winner): Q:
You had a choice of staying at Aqueduct to run in the Go for Wand or
ship here for the Falls City, and your decision worked out … “We
looked like we’d be competitive in either spot, but this race was at the
nine furlongs that she’s been running at. It worked out. Sometimes you
get lucky. There was a plane coming on Tuesday, and it worked out
well.”
Q: What is her future – will she run next year? “I
would imagine. She’s only four. I guess she deserves a little bit of a
break right now and we’ll bring her back later on. But she’s stepped up.
We’ve brought her along
very conservatively, never running in graded stakes until the last
couple of times. But it’s gotten her there. She’s got her confidence up
and she’s handled every challenge.”
Q: She had to fight today. It looked like she was going to run on by, then Afleeting Lady came back and she had to dig in again
… “I thought it was good and the boy (jockey Junior Alvarado) rode her
good. He made the
right decision and went for the right spot leaving the quarter pole.
When they were turning for home, he had a choice to make of who to try
to get in between and he selected the right spot.”
Q: You’ve had a very good Fall
Meet, with the two Breeders’ Cup wins and now this stakes win and a top
five spot in the leading trainer standings …“It’s been good. It’s not much fun when it doesn’t work out well, but
it’s fun when it does work well.”
Kenny McCarthy, assistant trainer to Bill Mott who trains Arena Elvira (winner):
“We figured the five (Juanita) was the speed and thought we’d get a
good comfortable spot with her. Certainly around the turn she looked
like she was under a little pressure, but I thought once she
straightened out in the lane and switched leads that she would really
finish up. It was a little close at the end, but I think she proved her
mettle at the end today.”
Q. What’s the upside for this filly? “She’s definitely going the right way, so the sky’s the limit.”
Q. This has definitely been a meet to remember, right? “Definitely. We kicked things off with Mr. (James) Karp’s filly (Anecdote) giving Mr. Mott his 650th win at Churchill Downs and
we’ve just rolled since then.”
Junior Alvarado, rider of Arena Elvira (winner): “She
was kind of bobbling throughout and not really handling the track. When
we turned for home, she switched leads and I knew I had plenty of
horse, but when she got
real close to the other horse (Afleeting Lady) she didn’t really want to
go by her. I always thought I had enough horse to get there by the
wire, though. She’s a nice filly. She ran great last time and ran well
again today.”
Dale Romans, trainer of Afleeting Lady (runner-up): “She’s doing good. She’s just been an improving mare all summer and fall, so she just keeps getting better and better.”
Q: What about that finish – she looked like she was beat and then she came back …“It
looked like she was going to back way up, then she surged again. But
she just couldn’t hold her off. That’s a good filly that beat
her. I think she’s going to be tough next year.”
Kent Desormeaux, rider of Afleeting Lady (runner-up): “She’s
still a little green, so I think there’s room for improvement, which is
exciting, you know? She’ll gain some racing maturity from that race.
The other one
(winner Arena Elvira) had an edge in experience over her, and it looks
like the light went on with the other one a long time ago. We’ll get her
light turned on after today, hopefully.”
“Rusty” Arnold, trainer of It’s Tea Time (third): “I
was happy with her race. She made a huge run around the turn. She might
have hung a little bit, but I think that was because of the pace. I was
pretty happy with
it.”
Manny Cruz, rider of It’s Tea Time (third): “She
ran a big race. We sat off the pace and she gave a lot to me in the
end. The pace was a little slower than I hoped and that didn’t help me.
Hopefully we’ll get a better
pace next time.”
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