Heavenly Sunday Puts It All Together in Edgewood Score
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Photo: Heather C. Jackson
Heavenly Sunday captures the Edgewood Stakes at Churchill Downs
After knocking at the door in her last two races, Miacomet Farm's Heavenly Sunday finally put it all together to earn her first graded stakes victory in the May 5 Edgewood Stakes (G2T) at Churchill Downs.
Heavenly Sunday had shown a tendency to be nervous in the mornings, a vice that carried over to her afternoon performances. Despite her fretful nature, the 3-year-old daughter of Candy Ride harbored enough talent to win her first two starts before finishing third in graded company in the Sweetest Chant Stakes (G3T) at Gulfstream Park and Appalachian Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland.
A different Heavenly Sunday showed up Friday. Unfazed by the raucous crowd of 106,381, the filly remained composed and professional in the journey to the starting gate, preserving her energy for when it counted the most. Gunning to seize the early advantage, Heavenly Sunday never relinquished her lead, striding to the wire a winner by three-quarters of a length in the $500,000 Edgewood.
"She's definitely improved," trainer Brad Cox said of Heavenly Sunday. "She showed us that this week schooling, in the paddock today, and before the race. She was calm and behaved leading up to the start and you know obviously this (is) as loud of an atmosphere as she's going to get. And she handled it well. She definitely improved a tremendous amount mentally this past spring."
Cox told jockey Florent Geroux before the race that he didn't believe his filly had to be on the lead, but if the lead was there for the taking, "to take it." Geroux gladly took it, guiding the filly through fractions of :23.19, :47.89, and 1:12.87 while virtually unchallenged.
"I think there was an honest pace but I don't think I was going extremely fast," Geroux said. "It was just a good rhythm for her to keep her comfortable. It looked like the horse (Revalita) was trying to make a run for me at the end but my filly had a major turn of foot."
Heavenly Sunday ($21.36) completed the 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:42.40.
The connections of Heavenly Sunday in the trophy presentation for the Edgewood Stakes
Revalita , one of three entrants for trainer Chad Brown, closed from the back of the pack to make a late run at Heavenly Sunday, but couldn't pass the winner.
"She tried really hard. We didn't get the trip we were looking for but she's an honest filly," jockey Jose Ortiz said of Revalita, who was making just her second start in North America since joining Brown's barn over the winter. "She started coming back turning for home but it didn't work out the way we planned it."
RyZan Sun Racing and Madaket Stables' Mission of Joy finished third to round out the trifecta.
Heavenly Sunday, bred in Kentucky by Randal Family Trust, is the first stakes winner produced from the Giant's Causeway mare Alien Giant . A stakes-placed 2-year-old herself, Alien Giant delivered a colt by The Factor this year.