Team D's Miss Brazil validated her heavy 2-5 favoritism, taking command from the gate and drawing away easily in the stretch for a 6 1/4-length victory in the $100,000 Ruthless for 3-year-old fillies on Monday at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The Ruthless, which was moved from Sunday to Monday after heavy snow forced the entire card to be pushed back a day, saw a three-horse field of Miss Brazil, Gulf Coast and Dealing Justice compete with It Can and Little Huntress scratched.
Miss Brazil, with Eric Cancel aboard from the inside post, led the compact field through the opening quarter-mile in 23.32 seconds and the half in 46.34 on the fast main track. Miss Brazil led handily out of the turn and had plenty left in the stretch, completing the seven furlongs in 1:24.92 in her sophomore bow.
Miss Brazil made her debut on Oct. 25, running third on the Belmont Park turf. Trainer Tony Dutrow said he thought the Palace Malice filly would prefer the main track, and she took to the surface with a maiden-breaking score on Aqueduct's dirt on Nov. 29.
Well-rested for her first start of 2021, Miss Brazil improved to 2-for-2 on the main track and returned $2.90 on a $2 win wager, besting Gulf Coast, who finished 45 3/4 lengths ahead of Dealing Justice, who was eased through to the wire.
“She's been very good in all three of her races,” Dutrow said. “Both her maiden win and today shows plenty. She's always promised to be a nicer kind of filly, so getting her ready for this race was easy. She's a better kind of horse and she does it all.”
Purchased for $170,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling Sale, Miss Brazil will now look to stretch out to a mile in the $250,000 Busher Invitational on March 6 at Aqueduct. The Busher offers 50-20-10-5 qualifying points to the top-four finishers towards the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks on April 30 at Churchill Downs.
“I'm feeling good about her at one mile at Aqueduct in the Busher,” Dutrow said. “I feel that won't be an issue for her. As far as two turns goes and her future after that, we'll have to wait and see how she does in the Busher.”
Cancel won his second consecutive stakes win after the rider piloted Risk Taking to victory in Saturday's Grade 3 Withers.
“I wanted to be on the lead to dictate the pace and take it from there,” Cancel said. “She's a very honest filly so I didn't have any doubts about her today. She's pretty straightforward and I had plenty of gas in the tank. I just wanted to give her a good ride and it worked out well.”
WinStar Stablemates Racing's Gulf Coast, conditioned by Rodolphe Brisset and ridden by Manny Franco, is 2-2-0 in four career stats, including runner-up efforts in the Sandpiper in December at Tampa Bay Downs and a stakes win in the Cash Run on New Year's Day at Oaklawn Park.
“The scratch of the speed [Little Huntress] hurt us a little bit given we were looking to stalk the pace,” Brisset said. “Nobody else could go with the favorite, so we had to go after her. Manny rode a great race. She may have broke a little slower than we were hoping for, but after that we just went on and tried to put pressure on the winner. But the winner was much the best.
“It's a long way to come to run second, but I'm happy with her race,” he added. “She tried hard. Hopefully, she can regroup and try another spot.”
Live racing at Aqueduct will continue on Friday with a first post of 1:20 p.m. Racing will be conducted four days this week, starting Friday and concluding Monday with a special Presidents Day holiday card.
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