Photo Call Headlines Robert G. Dick Memorial
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Photo: Coglianese Photos
Photo Call wins the 2016 Orchid Stakes.
Grade I winner Photo Call headlines a field of eight older fillies and mares set to run in the $200,000 Robert G. Dick Memorial Stakes (gr. IIIT) July 9 at Delaware Park.
Installed as the 9-5 morning-line favorite, the 5-year-old Galileo mare trained by Todd Pletcher for Teresa Viola Racing Stables won at the Dick Memorial's 1 3/8-mile distance two starts back in the Orchid (gr. IIIT) April 2 at Gulfstream Park in her second start for Pletcher. She claimed her top-level victory in the Rodeo Drive (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park in September for trainer Graham Motion and ran fifth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) before moving to Pletcher.
BALAN: Photo Call Takes Lead, Victory in Orchid
Juddmonte Farms' homebred Suffused, who finished fifth—3 3/4 lengths behind Photo Call—in the Orchid is the 5-2 second choice for trainer Bill Mott. The Orchid was the 4-year-old Champs Elysees filly's first U.S. start and she broke through two starts later to win the 1 15/16-mile Belmont Coronation Invitational Stakes June 9 by 4 3/4 lengths
The field is filled out graded stakes-placed Savings Account and Vielsalm, along with stakes-placed Swear by It, English handicap victor Peace Prize, and allowance winners Real Smart and Inside Out.