Dayatthespa Breaks $1M With First Lady Score

Multiple graded stakes winner Dayatthespa broke through the $1 million-earnings mark with a decisive score in the Grade 1, $400,000 First Lady Stakes on Saturday at Keeneland.

 

The 5-year-old daughter of City Zip held a stalking position to the outside of early leader Istanford, who set a pace of :23.65, :47.57 and 1:11.43 in the opening quarters. Dayatthespa, under jockey Johnny Velazquez, commanded the lead with an eighth of a mile left and opened up to cash a 1 ¼-length score.

 

Better Lucky and the 5-2 favorite Filimbi rallied from the back of the pack and managed to get up for respective second- and third-place finishes as the rest of the field converged on the finish line.

 

Centre Court, Somali Lemonade, Discreet Marq, Kitten's Point, Sassy Kitten and Istanford completed the order of finish. 

 

Trained by Chad Brown, Dayatthespa was sent to the gates as the 7-2 second-choice and paid $9.60, $5.00 and $3.20 for a $2 WPS wager.

 

The New York-bred mare boasts a career of 10 wins and four seconds from 17 starts. The $240,000 winner’s share of the purse pushes her earnings past the million-dollar mark to total $1,188,892.