Glen Hill Farm's People Watching turned the stretch run of the $100,000 Autumn Miss Stakes (G3T) into a thriller, rocketing from off the pace to run her rivals down en route to a 1 3/4-length victory, earning the first graded stakes victory for herself and jockey Katie Davis Oct. 25 at Santa Anita Park.
Breaking quickly away from the gate, longshot Latte Luv quickly took command alongside Goodies, opening up a 5-length lead on the field. Brave Deb chased along in third with another four lengths back to People Watching, who was biding her time in fourth under Davis as the leaders took the field through opening fractions of :22.88 and :46.58.
Near the top of the stretch, it looked like Goodies might have the 1-mile race wrapped up, but People Watching was putting in a tremendous run on the outside and Brave Deb was fighting on gamely between horses. People Watching took the lead in midstretch then held off a late charge from Ramayana en route to hitting the wire in a final time of 1:34.10.
Ramayana, who was at the back of the pack throughout most of the race, started her rally approaching the final turn and put in a late run under Jamie Spencer to best stablemate Brave Deb, who held on for third.
Cortina d'Amprezzo, sent off as the 9-5 favorite, finished fourth. Goodies faded to fifth.
Trained by Tom Proctor, People Watching paid $26.40 to win. The daughter of Twirling Candy earned her third win from six starts with more than $150,000 in earnings.
