Musical Rhapsody outduels Duvet Day in Santa Barbara

After a 1 1/2-mile journey, Saturday’s $100,000 Santa Barbara Stakes for older fillies and mares on turf at Santa Anita came down to the slimmest of margins.

In a thrilling stretch duel, even-money favorite Musical Rhapsody with Hall of Famer Mike Smith riding prevailed by a nose over second choice Duvet Day (5-2) to close the nine-race program.

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It was the first stakes win for Musical Rhapsody, who is owned by Michael House and trained by Phil D’Amato.

“She is a very straightforward, great training filly,” D’Amato said. “ She is a small little thing, but I don’t think she knows it. A lot of attitude to her but very straightforward.”

Musical Rhapsody and Duvet Day, ridden by Juan Hernández, each settled well off pacesetter Illhaveanotherkiss (6-1), who carved fractions of 23.25, 47.00, 1:12.25 and 1:37.47. Both began to make their bids on the final turn with Duvet Day getting the early jump on her rival as they straightened for the wire.

Inside the eighth pole, Musical Rhapsody clawed to the lead, but Duvet Day wasn’t done yet. She made one final surge in the final 100 yards to just miss in another Santa Barbara heartbreaker. In last year’s edition Duvet Day was beaten by a neck when second for trainer Michael McCarthy.

Musical Rhapsody won with a final time of 2:26.77 on firm turf.

“She will run down anything, but you have to time it right,” Smith said. “I didn’t mean to time it that close.”

As for Duvet Day, Hernández said, “She was in the bridle the whole time. “That is a good sign, because you know they came here to run, and they want to run. That was a long race. I had a beautiful trip saving ground, and around the quarter pole, I swung out and started making my move. For a moment it looked like I got it, but the outside was clearly the winner.”

Musical Rhapsody, who won a 1 1/4-mile allowance on turf in her previous outing at Santa Anita, paid $4.00, $2.60 and $2.10. Duvet Day returned $3.20 and $2.40. Vincero Grande paid $2.80 to show.

“Mike is so good with these strong horses,” D’Amato said. “Getting them to take a deep breath and relax and finish. Ever since I put him on her, he has done just that and gotten the most out of her. Hopefully, she now has two in a row and she can keep rolling.”

Bred in Ireland, Musical Rhapsody is a 5-year-old mare by Holy Roman Emperor. She had three previous stakes tries, all with Smith up and all won by the well-regarded, long-distance turf mare Linda’s Gift. Musical Rhapsody was second to Linda’s Gift in both the Grade 3 Red Carpet at Del Mar in November and the 1 1/2-mile Astra on Jan. 21 at Santa Anita. In her most recent stakes try on Feb. 24 at Santa Anita, she finished fifth behind Linda’s Gift in the 1 1/4-mile Santa Ana (G3).

With Saturday’s win, Musical Rhapsody is 16: 4-2-0 with $106,097 in earnings.