Dancing House Breaks Through in Fritchie

Godolphin's Dancing House put away not one but two favorites at separate points to win her first stakes in the $200,000 Barbara Fritchie Handicap (gr. II) Feb. 13 at Laurel Park.



The 5-year-old Tapit   mare stalked 9-5 leader Hot City Girl early in the seven-furlong dirt test, took the lead after that rival faded in the stretch, then held off a closing drive from 3-2 favorite Lady Sabelia to win by 1 3/4 lengths.



Lady Sabelia even put a head in front in the stretch, but the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained Dancing House battled back gamely on the inside to prevail, hitting the wire in 1:25.23 under jockey Kendrick Carmouche.



After hopping at the start, Dancing House raced two lengths behind Hot City Girl as she set fractions of :22.87 and :46.34 through a half-mile, then with Lady Sabelia to her outside ran six furlongs in 1:11.96.



"She stumbled a little bit out of the gate, but we were able to gather ourselves," Carmouche said. "She was in great shape and training well coming into the race. She really ran a nice race."



The winner paid $10.80, $5.20, $3.80 across the board. McLaughlin stablemate Clothes Fall Off closed for second to return $9.20 and $5.20, and Lady Sabelia delivered $2.80 to show for her third-place finish.



Sweet on Smokey rallied from last in the seven-horse field to finish fourth, followed by Wonder Gal, Hot City Girl, and Princess Violet to complete the order of finish.



Bred by Darley in Kentucky, out of the Slewvescent mare Tout Charmant, Dancing House now has a 5-2-3 record from 11 starts with $449,825 in earnings.



Since moving to dirt in 2015 off six straight turf starts, Dancing House has done well on the main track. She won an allowance at Keeneland in April of 2015, then ran second to champion La Verdad in the Interborough Stakes last time out Jan. 9.



"She was third in the Spinaway (gr. I) as a 2-year-old and then we went turf," McLaughlin said. "We went back to dirt and she's two-for-three now and second to La Verdad. It's nice to get her a grade II in because she was grade I stakes-placed before."

McLaughlin and Darley also combined on the same day to win the Royal Delta Stakes (gr. II) at Gulfstream Park with Penwith racing under the Godolphin colors.