Cozze Up Lady flies late to land Mardi Gras

Down more than eight lengths with a furlong to go, Cozze Up Lady turned in a

remarkable outside bid in the final yards to win the $59,400

Mardi

Gras at Fair Grounds on Tuesday.

Guided by Rosie Napranik, Cozze Up Lady trailed the field of eight fillies

and mares to the top of the stretch before wearing down pacesetter Saturday Nthe

Park, who edged 8-5 favorite Good Deed for second by a neck.

"She was standing like a statue in the gate and I was trying to get her ready

to break," Napravnik said. "She just walked out of the gate and wasn't picking

up her feet, so I thought she just wasn't going to run today. But once I got her

switched out in the stretch and she stopped taking dirt in her face, she really

came running."

Originally scheduled for the turf, the 5 1/2-furlong Mardi Gras was instead

run on a sloppy main track in a time of 1:05.

Following Good Deed under the wire were Same Cross, Seeking Ms Shelley, Los

Ojitos, Malibu Holiday, and Fantasy of Flight. Scratched from the race were

Feisty Flirt, Mosaicist, Ms Hoochie Coochie, Point to the Wild, and Starship

Duchess.

The 5-1 fourth choice, Cozze Up Lady returned $12.40 while making her first

start since June 29. The five-year-old daughter of Cozzene, trained by Bret

Calhoun, was sidelined following a victory in the Chicago Handicap at Arlington,

a Grade 3 event.

Cozze Up Lady is owned by the partnership of Martin Racing, Morgan

Thoroughbred, Westwind Property and Farfellow Farms. The latter bred the mare in

Kentucky.

Cozze Up Lady was stakes-placed twice last season on grass at three, in the

Indiana Distaff at Indiana Downs and the Sandy Blue Handicap at Del Mar. Her

record now stands at 12-6-2-2, $286,431/

A daughter of the Johannesburg mare The White Lady, Cozze Up Lady counts as

her third dam the multiple Grade 3 queen Apolda, who is herself a half-sister to

Grade 3 winner Ganges. Multiple Grade 3 winner Bedanken also hails from this

female line.

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