Southern Ring Works Hard to Prevail in Ruling Angel
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Photo:
Michael Burns/Woodbine
She may have had to work a little for it, but heavily-favoured Southern Ring prevailed in the featured $116,800 Ruling Angel Stakes, Saturday at Woodbine.
With Eurico Rosa da Silva in the irons, the Sam-Son Farm Ontario homebred stalked the pace of Green Doctor through fractions of :22.11 and :44.40. Turning for home, the favourite took dead aim on the leader and bested her late in the lane, edging away to win comfortably by two lengths in 1:16.10 for the six and one-half furlong Polytrack event. Roaming wound up third, another two and three-quarter lengths behind.
The overnight open stake for three-year-old fillies, attracted nine hopefuls, but Southern Ring was sent postward the 1-2 choice, off an impressive turf maiden breaker following a runner-up finish on Poly in her debut. And the daughter of Speightstown-Seeking the Ring didn’t disappoint.
And how appropriate the victory was, considering the stake is named after Ruling Angel, one of Sam-Son’s great homebred fillies, named Canada's Horse of the Year and Champion Two-Year-Old Filly in 1986, who campaigned in the late 1980’s, while earning almost $800,000.
Said da Silva afterwards, “Last time she was a little bit rank. Today, we had a horse to aim (at) and she did a great job. She was very, very relaxed behind. I was very pleased with the way she ran today. She’s a very nice horse. I liked this filly from the beginning, the first time I worked her.”
Added trainer Malcolm Pierce, “She’s just a good filly. I was so shocked she got beat first time out because she had trained so well. But obviously we ran into a very good filly first time (Elusive Collection) but she’s done nothing wrong since.
“We had a lot of confidence in her. Usually we’d throw her into a non-winners of two and get her a little more experience before facing stakes horses but the year’s about over and the ‘black type’ means a lot to these fillies. We’ve got probably the best horses I’ve ever trained in my barn at the moment. So it’s a thrill.”
Southern Ring, who earned $72,000 for the win, paid $3.10, $2.30 and $2.10, combining with Green Doctor ($7.50, $5.60) for a $24.50 (9-6) exactor. A 9-6-5 (Roaming, $5.70) triactor was worth $151.30 while a $1 Superfecta [9-6-5-7 (Her Majesty’s Flag)] returned $344.85.
Source: Woodbine Communications Office
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