First Matareya called her shot with a quick bounce back out of her previous race; then she delivered May 6 with a 2 1/4-length victory in the $500,000 Eight Belles Stakes Presented by TwinSpires (G2) at Churchill Downs.
After the win, trainer Brad Cox said the focus this spring had been on preparing Godolphin homebred Matareya for the Beaumont Stakes Presented by Keeneland Select (G3) April 10 at Keeneland. She easily passed that test, winning the about-seven-furlong test by 8 1/2 lengths.
When Matareya quickly bounced back at the barn off that effort, Cox said the daughter of Pioneerof the Nile largely punched her own ticket to Friday's seven-furlong test for 3-year-old fillies off less than four weeks rest.
"She was running back in three weeks and five days here," Cox said. "She had to be doing really well for me to lead her over here today after she ran a big number (speed figure) last time. She did respond well. She showed us in the morning that she was ready to run. Once again, she responded."
Cox said it's a good feeling for a trainer to see a horse strongly bounce out of a race.
"It's great because you really never know. It's nothing really that we're doing," Cox said. "We just let them kind of tell us, and she was giving us all the right signs."
Those signals would prove to be spot-on in the Eight Belles. Sent off the even-money favorite in the field of nine, Matareya settled into sixth early as Pretty Birdie opened a 1 1/2-length lead under Florent Geroux through a quarter-mile in :22.27, which she maintained through a half-mile in :44.72.
Ridden by Flavien Prat, Matareya improved position in the far turn while racing close to the rail then was shifted out to make her bid entering the stretch. She reeled in Pretty Birdie in midstretch and added to that advantage to the wire. Pretty Birdie held second, by two lengths over late-running grade 2 winner Wicked Halo in third.
"She broke well, but I just got outrun in the first part," Prat said. "Then I took a chance going to the inside where there were good horses to follow. Then we had a fair pace, was traveling well, and when I tipped her out, she was there for me. I thought it was a really good run for her."
Matareya returned $4.00, $3.40, and $2.80 across the board while Pretty Birdie paid $7.40 and $5 to place and show. Wicked Halo returned $5.60 to show.
Already a grade 3 winner, Pretty Birdie continues to impress her trainer, Norm Casse.
"She's very very quick, very very talented," Casse said. "I can't say anything wrong. I'm happy. That's the trip I expected. We got beat by a really nice horse today, but there's definitely more in the tank for Pretty Birdie and we're going to figure it out."
Casse said Pretty Birdie likely will stick to sprinting.
"I feel like we got beat today because we haven't had a seven-eighths race and the filly that beat us did," Casse said. "Now, we got that under our belt, she knows to navigate that trip a little bit differently next time. It might make the difference."
After trying a pair of two-turn races last year, Matareya has sprinted in all three of her races this year—winning those three by a combined 16 lengths.
"Once we turned her back to the one-turn distance, seven-eighths, around there, it seems that that really suits her," said Godolphin USA director of bloodstock Michael Banahan. "We tried to stretch her out a little bit last year—thought she might be an Oaks-type filly—but realized that sprinting is what she wanted to do."
Kentucky-bred Matareya is out of Innovative Idea, a grade 3-winning daughter of Bernardini. Innovative Idea has produced two winners from as many starters and has an unraced juvenile Uncle Mo filly named Methodology and a yearling full brother to Methodology.
"(Innovative Idea) was a class filly; it's a classic sort of family, and Pioneerof the Nile was one of the top stallions in the country," Banahan said. "We felt physically it suited the mare. She's a medium-sized mare; needed a little more leg, a little bit of size. I think the sire brought that; plus, he's an excellent stallion in his own right. It was a good breeding."
Earlier on the card Cox sent out Juju's Map to a 4 3/4-length victory in a 1 1/16-mile allowance-level race. The impressive effort marked the first start for Juju's Map since the daughter of Liam's Map finished second in last year's NetJets Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.
Cox said both fillies could be on a collision path for the one-turn mile Acorn Stakes (G1) June 11 at Belmont Park.
