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Daisy Devine steals Jenny Wiley, stays perfect on turf
"I was reasonably confident, but I respected the competition," McKeever said of his filly's chances in the Jenny Wiley. "She's just a good horse. Good horses do everything for you." Easily striding to the fore, Daisy Devine got away with an uncontested lead through pedestrian fractions of :25, :50 3/5 and 1:15 1/5 on the firm turf. Bay to Bay stalked in second, followed by a rank Heavenly Landing who was flanked by Tapitsfly. Aruna and Zagora were biding their time at the back, conceding an insurmountable tactical edge to the top four. Daisy Devine suddenly ratcheted up the pace, zipping her fourth quarter in a dazzling :22 1/5 to reach a mile in 1:37 2/5. Her pursuers simply couldn't make up any ground in the teeth of that kind of speed, and the winner was well and truly gone in the stretch. Daisy Devine kept up her ferocious gallop to finish 1 1/16 miles in 1:43 1/5. One length clear of Bay to Bay at the wire, she returned $16.20, $7.80 and $4.40 as the fourth choice. "I had no doubt whatsoever," Graham said of his thoughts turning for home. Bay to Bay, who held second throughout, fended off the rallying Tapitsfly by a half-length. Heavenly Landing checked in fourth, while Zagora just avoided a last-place finish by edging Aruna late. "We know the quality of those fillies behind us," said Garrett Gomez, the rider of Bay to Bay. "We (Daisy Devine and Bay to Bay) were able to kind of dictate what went on, and kind of stretch them out a little bit. When we turned for home our mares were still traveling real good, and when we pushed the button, they sprinted home." "They went very slow," said jockey Julien Leparoux, who was aboard Tapitsfly. "It's simple -- they went one, two, three (earlier in the race) and they finished one, two, three. She been running good coming from off the pace, so we didn't want to change. Just no pace." "They just went too slow," Tapitsfly's trainer Dale Romans commented. "I mean they just walked around there in front. They were one, two, three all the way around. Sometimes that happens in these short fields." Chad Brown, the trainer of Zagora, summed up the favorite's trip. "Too far back -- too far back. That's all I'm going to say," Brown said. "The way the race unfolded did not work out for me," said Javier Castellano, the rider of Zagora. "No pace in the race. She broke kinda flat-footed out of the gate and didn't break that sharp. I said that the race was over because the pace was slow. I didn't want to rush her to be in her spot. Unfortunately, the way the race unfolded did not help us." Trainer Graham Motion had been apprehensive about the pace scenario for Aruna. "The lack of pace really hurt her race," Motion said. "I think she ran her race, but for those kind of fillies to go that pace -- they're much better than that. They weren't going to come back to her. She prefers to (come from behind). It was just a paceless race, which was kind of what I was afraid of." Daisy Devine's resume now reads 12-7-1-1, $758,349. A $30,000 maiden claiming winner as a juvenile at Fair Grounds, the bay just missed as a wide-trip runner-up in the Silverbulletday Stakes, then promptly broke through in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks. A well-beaten seventh in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, she tired badly again when fifth in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on June 25. Daisy Devine did not reappear until the Grade 2 Indiana Oaks on October 1, but once more dropped far back down the lane and finished a distant third. McKeever subsequently worked her on the turf, took a shot that paid off in the Valley View, and has kept her on the grass ever since. Graham believes that maturity might be playing more of a role at this point than just a simple surface switch. "There's not really a whole lot of difference," the jockey said of Daisy Devine on turf as opposed to the main track. "She's just a bigger, stronger filly this year. She does anything you want her to do -- picks up, slows down, does whatever you ask her to do and does it the right way." Bred by J. Reiley McDonald in Kentucky, Daisy Devine was a bargain $5,500 yearling purchase at the Keeneland September Sale. She is a half-sister to New York-bred stakes winner Patent Pending. They are out of the Devil's Bag mare Devil's Dispute, who is herself a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 queen Banker's Lady, the dam of multiple Grade 2-winning sire Banker's Gold. Grade 1 hero, millionaire and sire Ecton Park is also in the immediate family.
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