Arlington Matron Includes Moment in Dixie
Hernandez Racing Club’s La Tia and Phillips Racing Partnership’s Moment in Dixie top a field of eight distaffers entered in Saturday’s Grade III $150,000 Arlington Matron at a mile and an eighth over the main track. Tha Matron shares top billing on the 11-race card with the Grade III $150,000 Hanshin Cup at a mile on the main track and the Grade III $150,000 Arlington Classic – the first leg of the Mid-America Triple – for 3-year-old turf horses.
The
Armando De La Cerda-trained La Tia has an affinity for the Arlington
International Racecourse Polytrack. As a 3-year-old, the daughter of
City Place won the Grade III Arlington Oaks over the same distance as
Saturday’s Matron and she also won the one-mile Purple Violet over the
course that same summer. The 5-year-old mare returned from a six-month
layoff to run second in a tough allowance race over a mile and a
sixteenth here May 11. E. T. Baird picks up the mount on La Tia
Saturday.
Moment in Dixie,
a James Toner-trained daughter of Dixieland Band, was runner-up in the
Grade III Doubledogdare at Keeneland last time out. The 5-year-old mare
has been competitive at this level and will be ridden Saturday by
Julien Leparoux.
Among
those slated to face the top two is Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey’s Awesome
Flower. The 5-year-old daughter of Flower Alley was a five-time winner
last year including a pair of $100,000 stakes races – the Lady
Canterbury on dirt and the Listed HBPA on Presque Isle’s synthetic
surface. Florent Geroux will ride the Mike Maker-trained mare.
G.
Watt Humphrey’s Frivolous has had some success on Polytrack, winning an
allowance race at Keeneland last time out and finishing second in last
year’s Arlington Oaks. Trained by Victoria Oliver, the 4-year-old
Empire Maker filly will be ridden by James Graham.
Completing the field for the Matron (with jockey listed) are: Lothenbach Stables’ Ambusher (Leandro Goncalves); James Greene and Hurstland Farms’ Heart of Destiny (Rosemary Homeister Jr.); The Farm on 4 LLC, Brent Gasaway and Michael Stidham’s I Dazzle (Sheldon Russell); and E. A. Cox Jr.’s Naples Gold (Channing Hill).