Shortleaf Stable's 4-year-old homebred The Mary Rose added to trainer Brad Cox's growing tally of victories for the weekend when she pulled off a late-running drive and got up to win the $150,0000 Downthedustyroad Breeders' Stakes Feb. 28 at Oaklawn Park.
Trained by Brad Cox, the Arkansas-bred Macho Uno mare entered Sunday's six-furlong dirt sprint off a Jan. 30 allowance win at Oaklawn. The Mary Rose broke slow and settled off the pace in seventh on the outside. Savedbyanangel set the early fraction of :22.22 for the first quarter mile by was pulled up mid-stretch and dropped back before the half-mile point and was jogged home by jockey Joe Talamo.
Proud Victoria, who was tracking the pace in second behind Savedbyanangel, fought briefly with Miss Antioch to take command but quickly faded. The Mary Rose, who had been running four wide near the rear of the pack, was guided out five, the six wide coming off the turn for home and was set down for a drive by Garcia.
The Mary Rose dueled briefly with Miss Antioch and a hard-running Matapan, but had enough in reserve to hold off her two challengers to take home the win by a half-length. Final time for the race was 1:12.28. Matapan held for second followed by Miss Antioch in third.
"She's a solid Arkansas-bred," said Cox. "Similar trip to her last race. Outside looked like where you needed to be. Martin (Garcia) did a good job putting her in position and got the job done."
“I had the best trip, just cruising around there," said Garcia. "When it was time to go, we just took off. Easy win.”
Out of the Tiznow mare Wood Rose, The Mary Rose broke her maiden in February of 2020 at Oaklawn. Her only other stakes attempt came in April of last year, where she finished second to Sekani in the Rainbow Miss Stakes over the Downthedustyroad distance.
The Mary Rose holds a 3-2-0 record from nine starts and earnings of $234,734.
