Tiz Flirtatious Most Impressive in John Mabee

Displaying an amazing turn of foot entering the stretch, Pamela C. Ziebarth’s Tiz Flirtatious collared rival Lady of Shamrock in less than a sixteenth of a mile and cruised to a most impressive victory in Sunday’s featured Grade II $250,000 John C. Mabee Stakes for older fillies and mares.

The California-bred daughter of Tizbud, sent postward the 3/5 favorite, was under strong restraint by jockey Julien Leparoux behind exceptionally slow fractional times of :26.66 for the first quarter, :52.84 at the half-mile and 1:17.94 for six furlongs.

Given her head by Leparoux rounding the far turn, Tiz Flirtatious exploded to the front, rushing past the 5-2 second choice, Lady of Shamrock, who had taken a brief lead only to be overwhelmed in a matter of several strides by the winner.

Tiz Flirtatious’ final margin was 2 ¼ lengths but it could have been more as Leparoux had his mount on cruise control running to the wire.  The time for the nine furlongs over the infield grass course was 1:51.71 with an estimate that the five-year-old mare raced her last three furlongs in :33.17 and a final eighth in :10.57.

Lady of Shamrock, who had stalked the slow early pace of stablemate Journaliste from the start under Rafael Bejarano, continued on well after being passed by Tiz Flirtatious to be a clear second, 1 ¼ lengths in front of My Gi Gi, with Customer Base fourth and Journaliste completing the line-up.

Tiz Flirtatious, conditioned by Marty Jones, was scoring her seventh win in eleven starts and first money of $150,000 increased her earnings to $624,800. She’s never finished out of the first three, having three seconds and a third in her career.

Tiz Flirtatious returned $3.20, $2.20 and $2.10 to her backers in a crowd of 15,652. Lady of Shamrock, the 2012 Del Mar Oaks winner, paid $2.80 and $2.20, while My Gi Gi returned $3.20 to show.

There were no perfect tickets in Sunday’s Pick Six so Wednesday’s program will feature a carryover of $255,708.