It's Tricky grinds out Ogden Phipps score

Cash for Clunkers had 1 1/2 lengths to spare over 6-5 favorite Awesome Maria

on the wire after setting the pace through fractions of :22 3/5, :45 3/5 and

1:09 2/5. It's Tricky drafted just off her flank under Castro while Awesome

Maria took up position to the outside of Juanita. Castro sent It's Tricky after

Cash for Clunkers on the turn and John Velazquez also urged Awesome Maria to

make her run.

It's Tricky ranged up in the lane but the Godolphin colorbearer didn't pass

her rival until just strides from the wire, finishing 1 1/16-miles on the fast

Belmont Park dirt in 1:41 3/5. Cash for Clunkers easily held second

over Awesome Maria, and it was another eight lengths back to She's All In, who

trailed throughout but got up to take fourth from Juanita.

"She ran her eyeballs out," Violette praised Cash for Clunkers. "She was

pressed from the middle of the turn. Eddie (Castro on It's Tricky) rode a

terrific race. I thought he would be more worried about Awesome Maria and maybe

leave us alone a bit longer. We had to start running on the middle of the turn

and it was a long, hard drive.

"For a filly that hasn't really been pressed to the wire, she just really ran

her eyeballs out. I am really, really proud of her. We found out today that she

is a real filly."

Awesome Maria followed the same plan that saw her take last year's Ogden

Phipps, winning the Rampart and Sabin, both Grade 3s at Gulfstream, but was

unable to emulate her prior performances.

"I thought she ran pretty well," trainer Todd Pletcher said of Awesome Maria

before adding, "I think I did a really poor job preparing her for this race. We

stayed in Florida too long, got rained on a lot, missed a couple of works down

there. Then I tried to make up for it here and breezed her on a sloppy track. I

really did a bad job preparing her for this race. It wasn't her fault. I'll take

the blame for it. We'll go to Saratoga."

It's Tricky opened her four-year-old campaign in the Top Flight, returning in

that March 3 contest four months after closing out her sophomore season with a

runner-up effort in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. It was also her first win

since taking the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks last July at Saratoga. The

bay filly posted victories in the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes and Busher Stakes last

season, but ended 2011 with a string of runner-up efforts in the Grade 1

Alabama, Grade 2 Cotillion and Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic.

It's Tricky has now banked $1,526,500 in career earnings and improved her

line to read 12-8-3-0. Her only off-the-board placing came in last year's Grade

2 Gulfstream Park Oaks, where she finished fourth.

Bred in Kentucky by Stonerside Stable, It's Tricky lass is out of the Grade

3-scoring Tale of the Cat mare Catboat, who is a half-sister to stakes-placed

winners This Fleet is Due and Betty Garr. That trio's dam is herself a

half-sibling to multiple Grade 3-placed stakes hero Northern Wolf.

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