Sunday, August 1, 2010
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Malibu Prayer collected her first Grade 1 victory and earned a spot in the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic Sunday afternoon at Saratoga Race Course, turning back a challenge from Unrivaled Belle to win the 35th running of the Ruffian Invitational by 1 ¾ lengths.
After bumping with favored Unrivaled Belle, who stumbled at the start, Malibu Prayer got away first and maintained the lead to the wire, outfinishing that rival in the final yards.
Her final time for the 1 1/8th miles was 1:48.14 over a fast track.
"I figured I would let her break and do it nice and easy, whatever she was comfortable with," said winning jockey John Velazquez. "When I asked her at the quarter pole, she responded very well. She did it very easily."
Although she could not catch the pacesetter, Unrivaled Belle finished 9 ¾ lengths clear of Classofsixtythree, who was a neck in front of Starship Angel for show honors.
"She took a pretty good shot at the start," said Unrivaled Belle's Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. "It was decent enough where she had to recover from it. We might have been a half-length closer to [Malibu Prayer] going into the turn instead of having daylight in between us. We might have been able to put a little pressure on her earlier than we did."
Malibu Prayer, bred in
"She ran a great race," said Tristan Barry, assistant to winning trainer Todd Pletcher. "When Unrivaled Belle stumbled at the start, that gave us a bit of an upper hand. She was able to get into a rhythm and just took it from there."
Tasty Temptation and Zaphyra completed the order of finish.
Previously run during the Fall Championship Meet at
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