ARCADIA, Calif. (March 16, 2013)—With consummate ease at even money, Joyful Victory, with female sensation Rosie Napravnik aboard, became Thoroughbred racing’s newest millionaire as she cruised to a dominant gate to wire victory in Saturday’s Grade I, $300,000 Santa Margarita Stakes, winning by four lengths while covering 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.53.
With front running Great Hot and Gary Stevens drawn to her immediate outside in post position three, Joyful Victory had a half length advantage going into the Club House turn and the 5-year-old Ontario Canadian-bred mare continued to lead by the same margin past the half mile pole and into the far turn.
“She broke sharp,” said Napravnik, America’s leading rider by number of wins (79) coming into Saturday. “She likes to run freely and doesn’t like being restrained so it was nice that we had plenty of room on the rail to take the lead into the first turn. She was just relaxed and ran a great race.”
Joyful Victory, a strikingly beautiful grey or roan mare, who set fractions of 23.02, 46.50, 1:10.50 and 1:36.00, asserted her dominance approaching the quarter pole as she opened up a four length advantage on 2-1 second choice More Chocolate and maintained it to the wire.
“I thought we were going to be on the heels of horses on the first turn, but when Gary’s horse went wide, Rosie just took advantage of it and thought this was the parting of the Red Sea…and it worked out very well,” said winning trainer “Cowboy” Larry Jones, who flew in Thursday night from his base at Fair Grounds Race Course, in New Orleans.
In what proved to be her first Grade I win, Joyful Victory, a 5-year-old mare by Tapit, paid $4.20, $2.60 and $2.10. Owned by Fox Hill Farm, Inc., she bagged $180,000 for the win, increasing her earnings to $1,090,679. Her record stands at 17-6-5-3.
“I was starting to wonder if she (Joyful Victory) was ever going to show up at the right time on the right day (to win a Grade I),” said Jones. “She had shown us this brilliance at times, but she’s just doing everything better right now.”
