Fluffy Socks Rides Rail to Selima Victory
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Photo: Jim Duley/Maryland Jockey Club
Fluffy Socks wins the Selima Stakes at Pimlico Race Course
Jockey Trevor McCarthy rode the rail to perfection Oct. 3 in the $150,000 Selima Stakes, pushing Head of Plains Partners' homebred Fluffy Socks past the favored Invincible Gal in mid-stretch and drawing off to a 2 1/4-length victory to kick off the 145th Preakness Stakes (G1) Day card at Pimlico Race Course.
McCarthy broke from the one post in the first of 12 stakes at Pimlico Saturday, then kept the Chad Brown-trained daughter of Slumber in reserve in sixth on the backstretch of the 1 1/16-mile turf stakes for seven 2-year-old fillies before she unleashed her winning rally in the stretch.
"I saved all the ground I could and when I came to the top of the stretch, I started to angle out but then the rail opened up and I said that was perfect. It was great to stay on that fresh ground every step of the way," McCarthy said.
Fluffy Socks ($14.40), a daughter of the Kitten's Joy mare Breakfast Time who was coming off a maiden win at Kentucky Downs, was timed in 1:50.74 over a course labeled yielding.
Michael Ryan, Jeff Drown and Team Hanley's Invincible Gal, an Invincible Spirit filly trained by Graham Motion who was the 8-5 favorite, held on for second by a neck over Timory Ridall's Tic Tic Tic Boom, a daughter of Hit It a Bomb trained by Alan Bedard who rallied widest turning for home.
The victory was a great start to the day for Sol Kumin and his partners in Head of Plains Partners, who also own a share of Preakness morning-line favorite and Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) winner Authentic through their Madaket Stables group.
Kumin said it was the first homebred stakes winner for his group. Fluffy Socks also represented the first black-type winner for her sire, and she was Slumber's first winner Sept. 7 at Kentucky Downs.