La Tia Probable for Beverly D
Hernandez Racing Club's La Tia has little to prove for local racing fans. She won the marquee Illinois race for sophomore fillies - the Grade III Arlington Oaks - in 2012, was the best locally based turf mare in 2013 with a runaway victory in the Lincoln Heritage Handicap and excellent third in the Grade III Modesty Handicap, and in 2014 annexed the premier race for fillies and mares on the main track in magnificent style - the Grade III Arlington Matron - pummelling her competition by a widening 6¼ lengths in a sharp 1:49.66 for the 1 1/8 miles. She even added icing to the cake by shipping to Woodbine last out to win by the same margin in a near-track record time of 1:42.70 while under a hand ride for the 1 1/16 miles.
Still, the Illinois-bred daughter of City Place sits in that enviable-yet-arduous fringe of being a multiple graded stakes winner who has yet to prove her worth at the Grade I level. The complicated state of affairs is exasperated by the fact that she seems to be in the best form of her career at age five, yet has not proven - nor attempted to prove - herself beyond 1 1/8 miles this year. All this melodrama may desist soon as the Armando De La Cerda trainee is on the cusp of a second attempt in the Grade I $750,000 Beverly D. on Aug. 16.
"She's in great shape and feeling really good; very happy," De La Cerda explained. "She's here (at Arlington) and she's a better filly now. If she trains good, she will probably run. She almost broke the track record the other day and did it easy. I'll work her this weekend on the turf and we'll see."
The charismatic dark bay filly with an oft-bowed neck and attractive blaze is easy to spot in the paddock and even moreso on the racetrack, as she loves to run on the front end. With a rapid cruising rate and an ability to slow if need be, she ran a deceptively good fifth in last year's Beverly D. under Kent Desormeaux - losing third in a tight three-horse photo with Glen Hill Farm's Marketing Mix and Shadwell Farm's Ausus.
If she returns in 2014 for the filly and mare turf centerpiece, she comes back a tougher customer. In this, two things are certain - she is a better racehorse by the numbers and (if she has things her way) there will be a bellowing yawp from the rafters when the three-time Illinois champion hits the top of the stretch with the lead.