Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners’ Meaning entered the 1-mile race after a three-month layoff, most recently finishing fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies after a difficult journey. Before that effort, the Michael McCarthy trainee broke her maiden by 3 1/2 lengths on debut Los Alamitos Race Track.
“She’s a stronger filly, more mature,” McCarthy said. “She’s put on a lot of weight here in the last few months. It was a big ask to go from a girl in Los Alamitos to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. I gave her some time after the Breeders’ Cup to get her feet under her feet and prepare for something like this.”
Ridden by Flavien Prat, the Rifle runner filly broke a step slower than her three rivals, content with leaders Explora and Super Corredora battling for the lead. Meaning followed the leaders through opening fractions of :22.57 and :45.98.
I wasn’t about to give the front runners a breather, which meant they put pressure on the half-mile pole, moved to the outside entering the final corner and put Super Corredora away. As she entered the stretch, the courageous Explora clung to her all the way under Juan Hernandez, dueling through the stretch before finally succumbing. Meaning finished the race in splits of 1:10.59 and 1:24.20 with a final time of 1:38.39.
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“The first quarter mile was pretty fast and I couldn’t keep up with them,” Prat said. “When we got to the back, she got under me nicely, and I had a chance to get out. I felt like the two fillies in front of me were going to take a breather. Since I was doing it so easily, I wanted to keep her involved. From there, she did the work.
“I’m glad I came. Very grateful that they offered me the ride.”
This means you paid $7.80 to win. She was the third consecutive winner on the day for McCarthy. He won his first special weight with That’s okay mom and the Clocker’s Corner Stakes with Yellow card .
“The way she did it was pretty impressive, to come back against a Breeders’ Cup winner and perform like that,” McCarthy said. “It will be interesting to see how they all progress here in the coming months.
“I thought we could win a few. It was nice to see Flavien come out. I always hope for the best, but I thought a few of these were well-intentioned and would go well.”
The Bob-Baffert-trained Explora finished three lengths ahead of the first winner Bank shot . Super Corredora was a further 2 1/4 lengths behind in fourth.
The Las Virgenes offered Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top five finishers on a scale of 20-10-6-4-2. Meaning jumped to number 5 on the leaderboard with 26 points. Explora and Super Corredora are still at the top of the leaderboard with 45 and 34 points respectively.
Meaning was bred in Kentucky by Stonehaven Steadings, who sold the filly under their banner at the 2024 Keeneland September Yearling Sale to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners/Bridlewood Farm for $440,000.
Video: Las Virgenes S. (BT)
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