Pool Land, the 3-2 favorite, pulled away from Josh's Madelyn
in the lane at Pimilco to win the $200,000 Allaire DuPont Breeders'
Cup Distaff Handicap (gr. III) by one length.
Grade I winner In the Gold, the 124-pound highweight under Javier
Castellano, was 3 ¼ lengths farther back in third.
Pool Land, owned by Melnyk Racing Stables, is trained by Todd
Pletcher and was ridden by Garrett Gomez to her first graded stakes
victory. The 4-year-old filly was a $475,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga
yearling sale purchase. Bred in Kentucky by Kings Way Farm and
Windfield Farm, Pool Land is by Silver Deputy and is out of the Slew City Slew mare Slew City Slicker.
"She did everything absolutely perfect," Gomez said. "I could not
ask for more."
Princess Pelona broke sharpest of the nine fillies and mares in
the 1 1/16-mile race, but she was quickly joined by Pool Land as the
field crossed the wire the first time. Dance Fee and Promenade Girl
gave chase through a :23.86 opening quarter.
Down the backstretch, Princess Pelona opened a sizable lead,
completing the half-mile in :47.93, but as they approached the turn
she was overtaken by Pool Land between horses, and the hard-charging
Josh's Madelyn to her outside. Those two took command of the race as
the field straightened away in the stretch, with Pool Land inching
away at the eighth pole.
Pool Land paid $5, $2.80, and $2.40. Josh's Madelyn paid $4.40
and $3.60 and In the Gold returned $4.20 to show. The exacta paid
$24.20.
After a mile in 1:36.36, Pool Land hit the wire in a stakes
record 1:42.71.
Pool Land came into the DuPont off a front-running, 12-length
score in the Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland. She now has five
wins from six starts with earnings of $276,976. Her lone defeat came
when sixth in the Shirley Jones Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. II) at
Gulfstream March 18.
"I thought she would rate," Pletcher said. "She has done
everything right her whole life. It worked out good from an outside
post. She was able to get some position in the first turn. She came
away with a good rating spot down the backstretch."
Friel's for Real finished fourth, followed by Promenade Girl,
Dance Fee, Princess Pelona, Silmaril, and Plata.
"I had to take back on the first turn because I didn't want to
get stuck too wide," jockey Ramon Dominguez said of the runner-up
Josh's Madelyn. "I put the pressure on at the three-eighths pole,
and I had a lot of horse left, but I just couldn't get to (Pool
Land)."
(Chart, Equibase)
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