Another Filly Star For Jones

- Larry Jones sure has some nice three-year old fillies. Maren's Meadow won the G3 Bourbonette Oaks at Turfway on Saturday; Proud Spell won the G2 FG Oaks two weeks ago, and the spectacular Eight Belles took the G3 Honeybee at Oaklawn with ridiculous ease last Sunday. So it's been a good month for the trainer's sophomore filly crew.

The name Maren's Meadow seemed familiar to me, and when I got home from the Big A, I looked her up and saw that I posted last year about an incident in which she was found to have been 'sponged' (a suspected tumor turned out to be a sponge lodged in her nostril) after finishing third as the 4-5 favorite in a Delaware Park allowance race. She won her subsequent race, but really seems to have improved since stretching out to two turns two starts ago, a game second in an Oaklawn overnight stakes to Win Star Oaks winner Sky Mom.

So I was a bit surprised that she was 7-1 in this spot (and pleasantly so for me, as I'll get to below, and, apparently, for Jones, who remarked: "I was on her myself.”). Maren's Meadow was ridden with confidence by Gabriel Saez; she was floated wide on the first turn, and remained in a wide stalking path down the backstretch before effortlessly easing to the lead; the winning margin was an undiminishing length.

Jones said that the daughter of the late Meadowlake will steer a different path from his other two, and bypass the Oaks for the Black-Eyed Susan. She's out of a mare by Yukon, an unraced Northern Dancer stallion, who's a half to the dam of Healthy Addiction, and Maren's Meadow is a half to two other stakes winners. Her third dam is Cool Mood, a Canadian Grade 1 winner and an influential broodmare from whom has descended graded winners such as Touch Gold, With Approval, Hedonist, Pies Prospect, Seeking Daylight, and Izvestia.

Eight Belles also descends from a nice distaff family. By Unbridled's Song out of a stakes-winning Dixieland Band mare, her third dam is Belonging, the dam of sire Belong to Me; and her 4th dam is the durable (99 starts) multiple Grade 1 winner Straight Deal, the dam of the G1 winner Desiree, in turn the dam of G1 winner Adored.

- Sorry to write this after the fact, but I loved Rite Moment in the G2 Distaff at the Big A on Saturday. Never even had a chance to look at the entries before I went to the track, but I certainly recalled this filly's spectacular win in her last, after which Contessa affirmed that he'd cut her back to sprints. Control System, who freaked in the mud here two back, was the 4-5 favorite, and Rite Moment was actually 9-2 when I bet her with around seven minutes to go. She went off at 5-2, broke a bit slowly, but moved up steadily and showed the tenacity of her sire Vicar in running down front running Your Flame in Me in a final furlong of 12.25 seconds.

I then cleverly parlayed the winnings onto two of the Bourbonette starters, including the winner and, as it turned out, the runner-up Valentine Fever. So not a bad return to the races for yours truly!

- Adriano took the G2 Lanes End on the Turfway Polytrack; but Randy Moss and Jerry Bailey spoke on ESPN about the fact that Graham Motion had previously counted the colt out of the Derby after his poor effort in the Fountain of Youth, his only career natural dirt start. He's now sandwiched that flop with impressive wins on turf and Poly, but Bailey spoke of the opportunity that Donald Adams, the colt's owner, who Bailey said has invested "tens of millions" on horseflesh, now has to run in the Derby. It's a tough opportunity to pass up I'm sure, and it will be interesting to see what the owner decides... though I think we all can suspect what that decision will be.