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Mean Mary Leads All The Way In New York Stakes For Fourth Straight Win

Alex G. Campbell, Jr.'s Mean Mary broke sharp from the outside post, led the six-horse field through every point of call and extended her lead in the stretch for a front-running 5 1/4-length score in Saturday's Grade 2, $250,000 New York for older fillies and mares at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y.

Trainer Graham Motion saw Mean Mary start her 4-year-old campaign with consecutive graded stakes wins at Gulfstream Park, starting with the Grade 3 La Prevoyante in January and the Grade 3 Orchid on March 28.

The Scat Daddy filly improved to 3-for-3 in her 2020 campaign, with Luis Saez sending her to the front, where she posted comfortable fractions of 25.11 seconds for the quarter-mile, 51.55 for the half and three-quarters in 1:16.28 on the inner turf course labeled firm even after a slight rain shower earlier.

Out of the far turn, Saez kept Mean Mary driven as she pulled away from the field, completing the 1 ¼-mile course in a final time of 2:01.85.

Mean Mary won for the fourth straight time overall and improved to 5-1-0 in seven career starts. Saez has been aboard for every start during the winning streak.

“I had a lot of confidence in her today,” Saez said. “She always does everything right. Today, she was just galloping. The track feels good today and I think the rain helped her. She was super relaxed, even more so than her last race. She feels better now than she did last time.”

Off at 6-5, Mean Mary returned $4.40 on a $2 win wager. The Kentucky homebred improved her career earnings to $396,160.

“You always wonder a little bit about Florida; did she just suit that course? But this is so different than running at Gulfstream,” Motion said. “The way she did it was pretty impressive. I worried a little bit. You always worry a little bit with that much time away and I wanted to keep her fresh, but she also had to be fit.

“The course took a little bit of rain, but it's so different than what she had been running on,” he added. “I think she might be one of those horses where you don't have to make too many excuses.”

My Sister Nat, one of two entrants for trainer Chad Brown, edged the Christophe Clement-trained Feel Glorious by a neck for second after rallying from sixth. That marked the second straight race the French-bred daughter of Acclamation finished as the runner up, following her North American graded stakes debut in the Grade 3 Long Island in November at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Call Me Love, also trained by Clement, ran fourth, followed by the Brown-conditioned Fools Gold and Valiance to complete the order of finish. Mrs. Sippy was scratched.

Live racing resumes Sunday with a nine-race card headlined by the $100,000 Bouwerie for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies going seven furlongs on Belmont's Big Sandy in Race 8 at 5:04 p.m. Eastern. First post is 1:15 p.m.

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Elizabeth Way Collars Another Time At The Wire In Woodbine’s Nassau

Elizabeth Way got up in the final strides to steal the spotlight in the $175,000 Nassau Stakes (Grade 2) featured on Saturday's program at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson worked out the winning trip in the one-mile fillies and mares turf event for Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield and owner John McCormack.

Elizabeth Way was led along by pacesetter Another Time through a quarter in :24.41, half-mile in :46.92 and three-quarters in 1:09.61 before digging in down the stretch and getting up to collar the front-runner at the wire in 1:33.26.

Sent postward as the 5-1 fourth choice, Elizabeth Way returned $13.30 to her backers. Favorite Malakeh followed the winner's cover and rallied home for third-place while Amalfi Coast closed from the backfield to finish fourth. Nantucket Red and Eyeinthesky completed the field. Lunar Garden was scratched.

A 4-year-old Godolphin-bred daughter of Frankel out of the Giant's Causeway mare Maids Causeway, Elizabeth Way started her career in Ireland and ventured to Woodbine after making four starts in the U.S. earlier this year under Attfield's care. Following a maiden-breaking score when trying 1 1/16 miles on the turf at Gulfstream Park, she won the Grade 3 Very One Stakes next time out in late-February over 1 3/16 miles. Saturday's victory was her third in 10 career starts and boosted her bankroll well over the $200,000 mark.

A confident Wilson, who studied replays and spoke with the chestnut filly's trainer to determine the winning strategy, said she knew Elizabeth Way had a chance to catch the front-runner and was happy to have another horse lead her along throughout the race.

“Her form is all over the place – one minute she's on the lead, one minute she's at the back of the bus. Watching the replays gave me a real understanding as to what she needed to do,” said Wilson. “It was really about getting her into a good rhythm and that's what Roger and I talked about as well. I got her out of the gate… and just got her happy into a rhythm and, you could see, she just galloped them down and she just kept on. She's a stayer.”

The Nassau is the first leg of Woodbine's Ladies of the Lawn Series, which offers $75,000 in bonuses to the top performers based on points accumulated in the designated graded turf routes for fillies and mares (10 points for 1st, seven points for 2nd, five points for 3rd, three points for 4th, two points for 5th, one point for 6th through last).

The second leg of the series is the $175,000 Dance Smartly Stakes (Grade 2) on August 15 followed by the $250,000 Canadian Stakes (Grade 2) on September 12 and the $600,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes (Grade 1) on October 18.

Wilson doubled up on the 10-race card as did Rafael Hernandez. Both jockeys are tied for the top spot in the 2020 standings with 15 wins through the first 12 race days.

Live Thoroughbred racing continues, without spectators, on Sunday afternoon. Post time for the 10-race program is 1 p.m.

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Street Sense Colt Cazadero Punctual Favorite In Bashford Manor

Odds-on favorite Cazadero reaffirmed his dazzling 8 3/4-length debut win with another impressive performance at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., in Saturday's 119th running of the $100,000 Bashford Manor (Grade III), beating County Final by 4 3/4 lengths while running six furlongs in 1:09.73.

Sent to post as the 2-5 favorite in a field of seven 2-year-olds, Stonestreet Stables' homebred Cazadero tracked pacesetter County Final, who blitzed his way to the front through swift fractions of a :21.24 and :45.12. Off the turn, jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. shook the reins on Cazadero, who quickly drew even with the leader at the three-sixteenths pole and asserted himself in deep stretch for the comfortable victory.

“He is an incredibly nice horse,” Santana said. “We sat in a really good spot today and was very comfortable. He kept finding his stride throughout the stretch.”

It was the record sixth Bashord Manor win for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, who previously won the juvenile event with Lunarpal (2004), Kodiak Kowboy (2007), Kantharos (2010), Cinco Charlie (2014) and Sir Truebadour (2018).

“He's been a very fast horse in his training and handled everything very well today,” Asmussen said.

Cazadero's triumph was worth $60,760 and increased his bankroll to $106,160 with a perfect record in two starts. His debut win came May 29 at Churchill Downs in a five-furlong maiden special weight.

Cazadero is a 2-year-old son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense out of the Forest Wildcat mare Wild Gams. He was bred in Kentucky by his owner Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC.

“He was a later foal (born May 8, 2018) but we knew he was wickedly fast,” Banke said. “He grew up on our farm and has showed that speed in his two starts.”

Cazadero returned $2.80, $2.40 and $2.10. County Final, under James Graham at 16-1, paid $6.80 and $4.80 and finished 1 ¾ lengths in front of Herd Immunity who paid $4.60 to show under Brian Hernandez Jr. at 12-1.

Hulen, Hyperfocus, Gatsby and Crown and Coke completed the order of finish.

First run in 1902, the Bashford Manor is named for the former Louisville Thoroughbred breeding and racing farm that dominated the American racing scene in the early 1900s. George J. Long, a wealthy foundry owner, purchased Bashford Manor Farm in 1887 and developed his Thoroughbred operation that provided him two Derby wins as an owner, 1892 (Azra) and 1906 (Sir Huon), and three as a breeder, 1892 (Azra), 1899 (Manuel) and 1906 (Sir Huon). In addition, Bashford Manor also won the Kentucky Oaks in 1894 (Selika) and 1915 (Kathleen). The original Wilder family owned Bashford Manor. The Wilders were direct descendants of Lord Baltimore, whose English home was also called Bashford Manor. Long died in 1930 and the farm was eventually sold in 1973 to make way for the development of a mall complex, fittingly named Bashford Manor, that formally closed in 2003.

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Frank Alexander, 82, Trainer Of Champion Cherokee Run, Passes

Frank A. Alexander, whose training career spanned five decades, died on Friday in South Florida at the age of 82.

Mr. Alexander won 997 races from 1970 until his retirement in 2012, the biggest coming in the 1994 Breeders' Cup Sprint with Cherokee Run, who would be voted an Eclipse Award as the year's outstanding sprinter. Cherokee Run, who won five other stakes and finished second to Prairie Bayou in the 1993 Preakness, went on to a highly successful stud career at Darley at Jonabell in Lexington, Ky.

He trained 73 other stakes winners during his career, including Grade 1 winners K.J.'s Appeal, Wallenda, Nonsuch Bay and Lucky Roberto. Mr. Alexander enjoyed a longstanding relationship with the late Cot Campbell of Dogwood Stable, for whom he trained Wallenda, winner of the 1993 G1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs. Other prominent owners Mr. Alexander trained for included Barry Schwartz, J. Mack Robinson and David Reynolds.

Born Oct. 18, 1937, in Glen Cove, Long Island, N.Y., Mr. Alexander was based in New York for most of his career, wintering in South Florida. He retired to Hollywood Beach, Fla., in 2012, telling Daily Racing Form's David Grening “I don't have any stock. It's getting harder and harder to get clients. You feel like a mom and pop operation between Lowe's and Home Depot.”

Mr. Alexander is survived by his wife, Linda. Additional information, including funeral arrangements, will be added to this article when it becomes available.

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