Mrs. Danvers Notches First Stakes Win in Comely
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Photo: Coglianese Photos
Mrs. Danvers wins the Comely Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack
Throughout her young career, Allen Stable's Mrs. Danvers displayed flashes of being a filly capable of winning a graded stakes.
All it took was some patient handling by a Hall of Fame trainer and a two-turn race to bring it out in her.
In the final start of her 3-year-old season and first try around two turns, the daughter of Tapit put the speed that kept her close to the pace in sprints and one-turn mile tests to optimum use, scampering away to an early lead and pulling away in the stretch to post a lopsided 6 1/4-length victory in the $100,000 Comely Stakes (G3) for 3-year-old fillies Nov. 27 at Aqueduct Racetrack.
"We wanted to get her around two turns," said Shug McGaughey, who trains the homebred filly for owner Joe Allen. "Every time she lost, we were disappointed. We always thought she had the ability to be OK, and she showed it today."
It was Mrs. Danvers' first stakes win in an eight-race career that now features three victories, three seconds, and a third, with the lone unplaced effort coming in the seven-furlong Longines Test Stakes (G1) when she finished a little more than 20 lengths behind Gamine.
"All of her races had been good, except the Test, which was terrible," said McGaughey, who entered the nearly white Mrs. Danvers in a stakes for the second time.
Her previous start was a neck victory in an Oct. 25 first-level allowance race at a one-turn mile, which convinced McGaughey to target the 1 1/8-mile Comely.
"From her last race until today, she worked well," he said, "and her last work was a really good one for a filly we wanted to stretch out."
McGaughey said Mrs. Danvers will now head to Florida, where he will likely target a graded stakes at Gulfstream Park to start her 4-year-old campaign and add even more glitter to an outstanding pedigree. Her dam, Gracie Square, is a half sister to the popular stallion War Front .
"Joe's very excited about her," McGaughey said. "She has a lot of pedigree, so she'll fit in with Joe's stable and then his broodmare band when she stops racing."
McGaughey said Friday's game plan with Mrs. Danvers was pretty simple. Given the inherently slower fractions in two-turn races, he told jockey Jose Lezcano that if the 3-year-old broke well and wanted the lead, take it and stay there.
Lezcano followed those plans to perfection as he piloted Mrs. Danvers to a length lead after the opening quarter-mile in :24.30 and then shook off challenges from 15-1 shot Project Whiskey and 2-1 favorite Gale, who rushed up after stumbling and breaking slowly but wound up fifth. Turning for home, she ran away from her seven rivals to open a safe five-length lead with a furlong to go.
"She doesn't always break well, but she did today, and Jose judged the race very, very well," McGaughey said. "The farther she went, the stronger she got."
The 7-2 third choice ($9.50) was timed in 1:50.09.
Ice Princess, owned by Flying P Stable, R. A. Hill Stable, and trainer Danny Gargan, moved up from fourth to take second by four lengths over Bass Stables' Thankful.
A 3-year-old daughter of Palace Malice , Ice Princess placed in a graded stakes for the first time in her seven-race career.
Thankful, a daughter of American Pharoah trained by Todd Pletcher, had a two-race winning streak snapped after victories in maiden and allowance races.