Daring Kathy Takes My Charmer Wire to Wire
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John Eaton and Steve Laymon's homebred Daring Kathy picked up her first graded stakes score with a solid wire-to-wire effort Nov. 22, taking the $115,000 My Charmer Handicap (gr. IIIT) at Gulfstream Park West .
The 3-year-old Wildcat Heir filly had plenty left when asked for run after setting the pace throughout, and kicked on down the lane under jockey Abdiel Jaen clear by 1 1/4 lengths. She finished 1 1/8 miles on good turf in 1:52.70.
"It was easy for me. She controlled the race," Jaen said. "There was no speed and I went for it. Right here in Florida, this is the best filly I've ridden. She gives me so much confidence."
Daring Kathy, trained by David Fawkes, came into the My Charmer off a 3 1/4-length score going one mile in the Oct. 18 Cellars Shiraz Stakes, also at Gulfstream Park West, the former Calder Race Course.
Off alertly in the field of 10 fillies and mares , she sailed out to a length advantage while posting a quarter in :24.96 and a half in :51.80.
Three-quarters went in 1:16.24 while Daring Kathy maintained her lead, and when asked for a second gear turning for home, she responded to hold off the late bid of Cushion, who finished a nose in front of Lilbourne Eliza. Angelica Zapata, the 3-1 slight favorite, finished fifth while evening out late.
"He rode her perfect," Fawkes said of Jaen. "When I saw them go in almost 25 (seconds) and then the :51 and change, I was like 'Oh my God. It's over.' He hadn't even asked her to do anything. She did everything he asked the whole race.
"Sure, you're always worried about older horses and all the rain. But we got the opportunity to go out there and look at the turf course, and the turf course looked in great shape and I think it helped us a lot. We had an opportunity to walk out there and look at it. Billy (Badgett) was nice enough to take us out there and show us the turf course, and it was the reason we raced. We weren't running this morning.
"We wanted to see how soft it was. Really, it was in very good shape. For all the rain we had, they really did a very good job on the turf course."
Daring Kathy returned $11.80, $6.80, and $4.60 at odds of 9-2. Cushion paid $5 and $4.20, while Lilbourne Eliza paid $7.40 in third. Magic of Reality, Angelica Zapata, The Blonde Peque, Merilore, Shy's Aly, Triple Arch, and Clearbrook completed the order of finish.
Bred in Florida from the Kingmambo mare Dare to Mambo, Daring Kathy was third in the Ontario Colleen Stakes (Can-IIIT) and in the Lake George Stakes (gr. IIT) this summer, her only two previous starts in graded company.
The winner took the Starfish Bay Stakes and Honey Ryder Stakes at Gulfstream Park earlier this season, and with the My Charmer victory improved her record to six wins and two thirds from nine starts for earnings of $356,366.
"We might wait for the Florida Millions," Fawkes said of the next potential start for Daring Kathy. "We'll just see how she comes out of it. There's like three more races coming between here and the Florida Millions. Then there's a race later on in the year after that."