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Palmilla pulls upset in Dick Memorial Augustin Stable's homebred PALMILLA (Crowd Pleaser) had never managed to threaten Rosinka (Ire) (Soviet Star) in their four meetings prior to Saturday's $284,800 Robert G. Dick Memorial S. (G3) at Delaware Park. But that scorecard wound up being nothing more than ancient history when the 20-1 Palmilla rolled past the prohibitive 1-5 favorite in midstretch and recorded her first career stakes victory. With Rosemary Homeister Jr. aboard, the Jonathan Sheppard trainee drove 3 1/2 lengths clear while completing 1 3/8 miles on the firm turf course in 2:17 1/5. The upset winner paid $42.20, $11.20 and $4.40 while starting the $156 exacta and $251 trifecta (4-3-1). Rosinka, who was bidding to defend her title in this newly elevated Grade 3 event, tried to wire the field as she had done last year. This time around, however, she was not allowed to waltz through pedestrian fractions. With Herboriste (GB) (Hernando [Fr]) goading her, Rosinka reeled off splits of :48 4/5, 1:12 4/5 and 1:38. The favorite opened up turning into the stretch, but she quickly came up empty. Palmilla, who had been stalking in third throughout, unleashed her late charge and ran out a commanding winner. Rosinka could not salvage second, as Herboriste just got up to deny her in a photo-finish. The runner-up returned $4.20 and $2.40 as the 5-1 second choice, and the beaten favorite yielded $2.10. It was another 13 3/4 lengths back to Leap in the Sun (Anees), followed by Royalties (King of Kings [Ire]) and Oh Glory Be (Dixieland Band). Eres Magica (Chi) (Stuka) was scratched, along with the main track only entrants All Smiles (Awesome Again) and Private Whisper (Roar). Palmilla more than doubled her career earnings to $310,310 from her 13-4-3-1 record. The bay had unsuccessfully chased Rosinka in the past two runnings of the John W. Rooney Memorial S. at Delaware, finishing second in 2007 and fourth this season. She was coming off a third in the Caught in the Rain S. versus fellow Pennsylvania-breds. Out of the stakes-winning Got a Crush (Allen's Prospect), the five-year-old Palmilla comes from the family of recent Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Fr-G1) star Youmzain (Sinndar); Lockinge S. (Eng-G1) hero Creachadoir (King's Best); multiple highweight and $4 million earner Pilsudski (Ire) (Polish Precedent), whose victories include the 1996 Breeders' Cup Turf (G1); and Japanese champion Fine Motion (Danehill).
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