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Fanticola gets her graded laurel in Royal Heroine

Fanticola said "not this time" to Queen of the Sand (Benoit Photo) Anthony Fanticola and Joseph Scardino's Fanticola (Silent Name) has suffered heartbreakers in the April 18 Santa Barbara H. (G3) and May 25 Gamely (G1), so it could be viewed as a measure of justice that she earned her breakthrough in Saturday's $201,000 Royal Heroine (G2) at Santa Anita. Just foiled at the line in those recent front-running efforts, the Philip D'Amato trainee played the role of hunter this time. Regular rider Joe Talamo had her perched in second as Birdlover (Byron) doled out a steady pace of :23 2/5, :48 and 1:12 3/5. Fanticola pounced in midstretch, overtook the tiring Birdlover, and tried to pull away. But 2-1 favorite Queen of the Sand (Footstepsinthesand), who had robbed her in the 1 1/4-mile Santa Barbara, once again swooped onto the premises. For a few strides, Fanticola fans must have wondered if history would repeat itself. This time, however, at a flat mile, Fanticola held on by a neck in a final time of 1:36 3/5. "We had a great trip," Talamo recapped. "She settled good off Birdlover and ran a real good race today. I thought the fractions were perfect. We went slow enough that it helped me and Mike (Smith, aboard Birdlover). I'm glad we drew outside of Birdlover; we were able to track her and it worked out from there. "I think she's been off the board only once, she runs hard. She's just been unlucky a few times. In her last out she just didn't see that other filly. She's a fighter, when she sees other horses, she'll fight."

Stormy Lucy (Stormy Atlantic) rallied for third, a fine effort in her belated seasonal reappearance. Alexis Tangier (Tiznow) raced evenly in fourth, while Birdlover faded to eighth of nine.

Fanticola, who returned $10.20 as the 4-1 third choice, now sports a mark of 17-5-5-6, $468,300. The dark bay was first trained by D'Amato's mentor, the late Mike Mitchell, for whom she placed in last year's Megahertz, Wishing Well and American Beauty. After D'Amato took charge of the barn, Fanticola finished third in the off-the-turf Sen. Ken Maddy to conclude 2014.

The five-year-old kicked off 2015 with a wire job in the January 15 Megahertz at this course and distance. Third to Birdlover on the cutback to a downhill sprint in the February 8 Wishing Well, she stretched out for her near-misses in the Santa Barbara and Gamely.

"She deserved this," D'Amato said. "She'd been knocking on the door and had two tough beats in her last two, and this is kind of vindication for all her hard efforts. She's gotten better and better, with more confidence. Instead of waiting to run her at Del Mar, we decided to go here.

"Maybe we'll look at the (August 8 John C.) Mabee ([G2] over 1 1/8 miles on Del Mar's turf) next."

Bred by Hedgestone Management and Frank Mermenstein in Ontario, Fanticola sold for $21,079 at the CTHS Canadian-bred Yearling Sale. She was produced by the stakes-placed Catalina Cat (Tabasco Cat), from the extended family of influential sire In Reality (Intentionally).

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