My Miss Aurelia All Heart in Adirondack
Repelling a stiff early challenge and then a protracted one through the length of the stretch, favorite My Miss Aurelia showed fighting spirit Sunday to hang on and win the 95th running of the Grade 2, $150,000 Adirondack at Saratoga Race Course.
Ridden by Julien Leparoux, the bay daughter of Smart Strike ran the 6 ½-furlong race for 2-year-old fillies in 1:17.01, fending off Grade 2 Matron winner Millionreasonswhy by a neck.
“She ran a really tough race; very proud of her,” said trainer Steve Asmussen, who trains My Miss Aurelia for George Bolton and Stonestreet Stables. “She definitely earned it. I think she showed a lot, coming off one 5 ½–furlong maiden race to fight like that to the wire, especially with the way the race set up. She was challenged the whole way, and it’s very nice to have a filly as good as she is.”
As the 1-2 favorite in the field of five, My Miss Aurelia paid $3 for a $2 win bet. The attendance for the day, featuring a T-shirt giveaway, was 45,960.
When the gate opened, My Miss Aurelia sprinted to the lead but almost immediately was pressured by the other runners. Bellacourt, runaway winner of a state-bred maiden race on July 31, poked her head in front after a quarter mile in 22.20 seconds.
After a half mile in 45.32 seconds, New Wave, ridden hard along the rail, fell away as did Anna Sophia on the outside. Turning for home, My Miss Aurelia put away Bellacourt, and then on the far turn Millionsreasonwhy advanced from her stalking position three wide and engaged the leader in an electrifying duel.
The two fillies separated from the rest of the field, with My Miss Aurelia ultimately prevailing. Bellacourt finished 14 ¾ lengths back in third, followed by New Wave and Anna Sophia. Funny Proposition was scratched.
My Miss Aurelia entered the Adirondack off a single start, a one-length victory in a 5 ½-furlong sprint on July 22 at Saratoga.
“This shows she has some fight to her,” Leparoux said. “She doesn’t want anyone to go by her or get past her. She showed she could go that extra eighth of a mile and dig in against other horses today.”
Asmussen said the win by a homebred was gratifying because it helps carry the Stonestreet tradition. Stonestreet founder Jess Jackson died in April, and his widow, Barbara Banke, vowed to carry on with the stable.
“She’s a very special filly, with her being a Stonestreet homebred and George (Bolton) being in on her,” Asmussen said. “Barbara, she’s just a tremendous individual and it speaks volumes of the horses they are breeding and raising to win a race of this caliber, especially in that style.”
Bolton, part of a large festive gathering in the winner’s circle, said Jackson and Banke named the filly after his mother.
“It’s a very sentimental thing,” he said. “My mother is a lucky person, and it was apropos to have a horse named after her.”
Banke agreed. “Aurelia is one of the luckiest people I know and was our lucky charm during the entire [championship] Curlin campaign.”
The victory pushed My Miss Aurelia’s lifetime earnings to $120,000.
Afterward, Asmussen already had another race in his sights.
“We’d love to run her in the Spinaway [Grade 1, seven furlongs, September 4], knowing what a great chance it would be for us.”