Lake Avenue Cruises to Victory in Demoiselle
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Robert Mauhar
Lake Avenue (inside) leads the field off the turn for home in the Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack
Neither a poor start, the outside post, nor a first try around two turns mattered to Godolphin's Lake Avenue as she motored to a four-length victory in the $250,000 Demoiselle Stakes (G2) for 2-year-old fillies, one of four graded stakes on the Dec. 7 card at Aqueduct Racetrack.
A homebred daughter of Tapit out of the multiple grade 1-winning Street Cry mare Seventh Street, Lake Avenue was following an impressive 12 3/4-length maiden win for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in her second start.
"It looked like she relaxed nicely down the backside," Mott said. "She was hawking around through the stretch. She's a little green, but it appeared she had a little more in the tank. She'll go to Florida from here."
Lake Avenue lunged at the start and brushed her stall gate but still managed to rush up four wide on the first turn to grab a clear lead by the time the field hit the backstretch.
"She tried to break through the gate when they loaded, and then at the break, she hopped a little bit. It wasn't the greatest start, but she has natural speed and Bill said to not take away anything that comes easily," jockey Junior Alvarado said. "After that she recovered quickly and put herself in a good spot. I was just along for the ride after that."
Cruising along through fractions of :50.76 and 1:15.93 on a dry but woefully slow surface, Lake Avenue faced a threat from Ten Strike Racing's Critical Value leaving the quarter pole but was more than up to the challenge. Under urging, Lake Avenue pulled away in midstretch and crossed the wire in 1:54.55 for the 1 1/8 miles. She paid $10.80 on a $2 win bet.
Courtlandt Farms' 5-2 favorite Maedean, another daughter of Tapit, split horses and grabbed second by a neck over Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Michael Cloonan, and Timothy Thornton's Blame Debbie. Critical Value was another half-length back in fourth.
As part of the Road to the Kentucky Oaks, Lake Avenue racked up 10 points toward a starting spot in the grade 1 test for 3-year-old fillies. Maedean picked up four points, Blame Debbie two, and Critical Value one.
The win was the third for Mott in the Demoiselle and his first since Mushka in 2007.
Seventh Street is also the dam of the grade 1-placed Bernardini runner Marking. She has an Into Mischief yearling colt, foaled a full brother to Lake Avenue April 23, and was bred back to Bernardini for 2020.