6 Ene. USA. Sabin H. G3. Gulfstream Park. 8f. Dirt. 150.000 $
1.- GOLDEN VELVET (E.Coa)
1.- LADY MARLBORO (J.Castellano)
3.- MINI SERMON (J.Velazquez)
Lady Marlboro fought her way through a narrow opening on the inside to gain a dead heat for victory with Golden Velvet in an exciting edition of the $98,000 Sabin Handicap (gr. III) at Gulfstream Park on Sunday.
Both Lady Marlboro, ridden by Javier Castellano, and Golden Velvet, with Eibar Coa aboard, earned their first graded stakes wins in the one-turn mile event for older fillies and mares. Favored Mini Sermon, who had defeated Lady Marlboro and Golden Velvet in the Top Flight Handicap (gr. II) at Aqueduct Nov. 23, finished third after leading to mid-stretch.
Mini Sermon, guided by John Velazquez, and Lady Marlboro dictated a sensible pace in the five-horse field. Lady Marlboro, breaking from the rail, led most of the opening quarter mile in :23.62 before Mini Sermon, who left from the far outside, gained a half-length advantage while recording :46.10 and 1:11.04 splits. With a quarter-mile to run, Lady Marlboro fell back to third along the inside as Golden Velvet made a three-wide bid in upper stretch.
Mini Sermon had the lead and seemed to be running comfortably, but she did not respond to urging from Velazquez at the furlong pole as Golden Velvet swept to the lead and appeared headed for victory. The determined Lady Marlboro, however, rallied back along the inside and slipped past Mini Sermon. Lady Marlboro appeared to put her nose in front in the final two strides but had to settle for a draw in the head bob at the wire.
“I really thought when we got around them that (Golden Velvet) was going to win easy, but that filly is really game and my filly never really exploded," Coa said. "She just sort of floated out there. She did enough to get by them but not enough to get away from them. When we got back I saw it was taking so long, and I started thinking ‘I’ll take a dead-heat right now.’ I thought we had lost for sure.”
The final time was 1:37.21 on a fast track.