Santa Anita: Familiar names win with Warming in Autumn Miss
A day after teaming to win the Twilight Derby (G2) with Test Score, trainer Graham Motion and jockey Juan Hernández joined forces again at Santa Anita on Sunday to win with Warming in the Grade 3, $100,000 Autumn Miss Stakes.
Sent off at 5-1, Warming settled near the rear of the field of nine 3-year-old fillies. She shot through horses at the top of the stretch to win comfortably by 1 1/2 lengths.
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A Thousand Miles, the longest shot on the board at 95-1, finished second under Diego Herrera after setting fractions of 22.78, 46.63 and 1:11.48 for six furlongs. It was another 1 1/4 lengths back to Precise Timing (71-1) in third followed by Wink and a Grin (46-1). The trio of high-priced horses in the minor placings helped trigger a $4,709.01 payout in the $1 superfecta.
The Autumn Miss was the first stakes win for Warming, a daughter of Global Campaign owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. She won at a time of 1:34.44 for the two-turn turf mile
“She broke a step slow,” Hernández said. “The plan was to stay close to the pace, but after the gate opened, plans change. I just went to the inside a little bit to save ground. They put up a good pace, so that helped me a lot. I was just kind of waiting to make my move. Around the quarter pole the horse in front of me dropped out, and I saw the opportunity to shoot in between them. I asked my filly to go in through that hole, and she did it. She just kept accelerating to the wire.”
Warming was bought for $100,000 at last year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales March auction of 2-year-olds in training. She is 7: 3-0-1 with $191,100 in earnings.
In three previous stakes tries, Warming finished fifth in the both the Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1) and Lake Placid (G2) this summer at Saratoga. Most recently she third, losing by three-quarters of a length in the John C. Harris (G3) sprinting about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.
Warming paid $12.40, $6.20 and $4.60. A Thousand Miles, trained by Vann Belvoir, returned $92.80 and $30.00. Precise Timing, ridden by Antonio Fresu for trainer John Sadler, paid $27.00.