Mother Mother Speeds to Victory in Rags to Riches
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Photo: Coady Photography
Mother Mother wins the Rags to Riches Stakes at Churchill Downs
Stretching out to a mile for the first time in her three-race career, Mother Mother found her winning stride and took home her first stakes win in the $100,000 Rags to Riches Stakes Oct. 28 at Churchill Downs.
It all started out a little bumpy.
When his mount Chocolate Kisses hopped out of the gate at the break, jockey Julien Leparoux was tossed to the ground. Unaware of the commotion and armed with a new set of blinkers, Mother Mother ran on to take the lead on the rail by a head over Into Mystic.
Clicking off fractions of :22.55, :45.16, and 1:09.82 through the first six furlongs, Mother Mother angled out into the lane at the top of the stretch and opened her lead to 1 1/2 lengths. Shifting into the four-path Molto Bella began to make steady gains on the leader and edged past a tiring Into Mystic in the lane.
Nonplussed, Mother Mother charged on to the wire and turned back the late challenge from Molto Bella, crossing the wire 1 3/4 lengths ahead in a final time of 1:36.72.
"I rode her like she was the best," said winning jockey Florent Geroux, who won last year's renewal of the race on Monomoy Girl. "She carried me all the way to the wire. She got a little bit tired at the end, but that was her first time going a mile, plus she was a coming off a layoff since she hadn't run since the (Sept. 1) Debutante (G1), but I think she's really improved off of this race."
Molto Bella finished second, followed by High Regard in third. It was another 10 3/4 lengths back to fourth-place finisher Princessa Carolina. Take Charge Angel and Into Mystic completed the order of finish.
The Rags to Riches was the first stakes win for Mother Mother who finished second last out in the Sept. 9 Del Mar Debutate (G1) to Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies entrant Bellafina. The 2-year-old daughter of Pioneerof The Nile broke her maiden on first asking July 22 at Del Mar for trainer Bob Baffert.
Mother Mother improved her record to two wins and one second from three starts with $157,503 in earnings. Bred in Kentucky by T.F. VanMeter, Mother Mother was a $450,000 purchase by George Bolton from the VanMeter Gentry consignment to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She is owned in partnership by Bolton, Barry Hall, Barry Lipman, Mark Mathiesen, and Andrew Molasky.