Fault Finds Just Enough in Adoration Victory

The margin was slim, but Fault's victory in the $100,000 Adoration Stakes (G3) May 6 at Santa Anita Park may have been one of her best.

It didn't have the eye-popping pizzazz of her open-lengths grade 1 victory last time out in the Santa Margarita Stakes (G1), but the deep closer encountered a slow pace Sunday in the 1 1/16-mile Adoration and still got to the wire first under jockey Geovanni Franco.

As she did in the Santa Margarita, the speedy Mended took to the front and set the pace, but this time she got away with fractions of :24.16, :48.40, and 1:12.87 through six furlongs, while the Phil D'Amato-trained Fault took up the rear in the six-horse field, 8 1/2 lengths behind the leader.

By comparison, in the 1 1/8-mile Santa Margarita, Mended set pressured fractions of :22.92, :46.79, and 1:11.11.

Even with the slow pace in front of her, Agave Racing Stable and Little Red Feather Racing's 4-year-old Blame  filly, off at odds of 3-5, began her closing rush as the field entered the second turn, moved three to four wide in the bend, and surged to the wire on the outside in the stretch. In the final three-sixteenths, she first inhaled fellow grade 1 winner Vale Dori, who stalked in third in the backstretch but flattened out late, then blew past La Force, Mended, and longshot Shenandoah Queen to win by a half-length.

"I knew the pace was slow and the filly wanted to be closer, but I decided to wait," Franco said. "I wanted to try and do what we did last time, which was to swing out and let her make her run. That's what she really loves to do, and she made the same run she did last time. She's really special."

Shenandoah Queen, who hadn't placed in five starts since her score in the Aug. 25 Tranquility Lake Stakes at Del Mar, made a simultaneous move with Vale Dori on Mended midway through the final turn but appeared to lose touch with the frontrunner, who answered the challenge and kicked away.

But Mended tired in late stretch, and Shenandoah Queen re-rallied on the rail to take command before being passed in the final strides by Fault.

"She did her thing today," said Billy Koch of Little Red Feather Racing. "It's really incredible and impressive with those fractions to be able to close like that, especially after losing all that ground."

Mended held for third, a length in front of La Force, who was followed by Vale Dori and Demigoddess to complete the order of finish.

Bred in Kentucky by Claiborne Farm, out of the Horse Chestnut mare Charming N Lovable, Fault has a 6-3-2 record from 16 starts and $618,795 in earnings. In 2018, she's earned $420,000 from three wins, all in graded stakes. Prior to the Santa Margarita, she won the Buena Vista Stakes (G2T) on grass at Santa Anita.