Keeneland: Romagna Mia stays for 1st U.S. win in Dowager
Romagna Mia went to the front before the eighth pole and drew off to post a three-length victory over Transient on Sunday afternoon in the 32nd running of the Grade 3, $260,025 Dowager Stakes (G3) for fillies and mares at Keeneland.
Owned by Barry Irwin’s Team Valor International, trained by Graham Motion and ridden by John Velázquez, Romagna Mia completed the 1 1/2 miles on a firm, turf course at 2:29.87. It is the fourth win in the race for Motion and second for Velázquez. It also was Romagna Mia’s first victory since she was transferred from France-based trainer Jérôme Reynier to the U.S.
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Motion’s previous victories came with Humaita in 2004, Kitten’s Point in 2015 and Blame Debbie in 2020. Velázquez, who won his third graded stakes of the Keeneland fall meet, previously won the Dowager in 2017 on Apple Betty.
Henrietta Topham led the field through opening fractions of 24.45 and 48.76 seconds with Vergara and Transient in closest pursuit. On the backstretch, Transient closed in on Henrietta Topham, and those ran one-two to the top of the stretch. That was where Transient took over.
Transient’s advantage was short-lived. Romagna Mia quickly closed in with a four-wide bid, took over before mid-stretch and pulled away.
“Barry kept telling me, ‘She stays all day. She stays all day,’ so I just had that in my head,” Velázquez said. “She’s going to stay all day, so I’m going to put the pressure on and hope she keeps going that way. When she came to the three-sixteenths, she straightened, and she went on and ran away from the horses.”
A Group 2 winner last year in Italy for her first trainer Luigi Di Dio, Romagna Mia improved her record to 12: 4-2-1, including two wins for her second conditioner . With Sunday’s check of $151,125, she improved her earnings to $363,304. She is a 4-year-old daughter of Mastercraftsman out of the Rip Van Winkle mare Washington Blue.
Sent off as the favorite in the field of seven, Romagna Mia paid $6.76, $4.54 and $3.24. Transient returned $4.74 and $3.12 under Tyler Gaffalione and finished a head in front of Loved Reiko, who paid $6.26 to show under Julien Leparoux. It was another 2 1/2 lengths back to Lovely Princess with Vergara, Henrietta Topham and Personal Best following in that order.