Maria is Awesome in Matron

E. Paul Robsham Stables' homebred AWESOME MARIA (Maria's Mon) made her stakes

debut a winning one in Saturday's $250,000

Matron S.

(G2) at Belmont Park, drawing clear to a 2 3/4-length decision beneath

Cornelio Velasquez. An 8 1/4-length maiden scorer in her previous outing at

Saratoga, the Stanley Hough-trained juvenile filly closely tracked the pace in

second before taking over in upper stretch, and she went on to complete seven

furlongs in 1:23.

Sent off the 7-2 second choice among nine rivals, the gray filly paid $9.50,

$5.60 and $4.10. Touching Beauty (Tapit) parlayed a stalking trip into a

runner-up finish, holding the late-running Worship the Moon (Malibu Moon) by a

nose on the wire, and returned $14.60 and $8.40 at 16-1. Worship the Moon, the

second-longest shot at 37-1, was good for $12.40. It was 1 1/4 lengths back to

46-1 pacesetter Southern Truce (Yes It's True), who established early splits in

:22 2/5 and :45 1/5 before yielding to the winner. Next under the wire came

Heavenly Landing (Pulpit), Dashing Debby (Medaglia d'Oro), Speightful Lady

(Speightstown), 4-5 favorite Worstcasescenario (Forbidden Apple) and Babai Baby

(Value Plus).

The exotics totaled $133 (exacta), $1,981 (trifecta) and $11,243 (4-3-1-2

superfecta).

"She broke very well and stayed in good position close to the pace,"

Velasquez explained. "At the three-quarter pole when I asked her, I had a lot of

horse. I like the filly. She doesn't stop, she'll run all day."

Hough is excited about the prospect of her stretching out in distance.

"I think she'll be better going longer," the conditioner said. "I thought

there'd be more speed in the race than actually came out. She's kind of got one

pace to her, but fortunately, it's a pretty good pace. She trained great; I

really love the filly. She's got a great mind."

Second by a half-length in her career bow, Awesome Maria improved her career

mark to 3-2-1-0 with $191,197 in earnings. The Kentucky-bred miss is the first

foal from the unraced Discreetly Awesome (Awesome Again), who is out of Grade 1

winner and 1994 Matron (G1) runner-up Pretty Discreet (Private Account). The

seven-year-old mare is a half-sister to Grade 1-winning millionaire Discreet Cat

(Forestry), multiple stakes hero Pretty Wild (Wild Again) and Saturday's

Futurity (G2) runner-up Discreetly Mine (Mineshaft). This is also the female

family of 1987 Kentucky Oaks (G1) heroine Buryyourbelief (Believe It).

Hough said he would probably point Awesome Maria toward the one-mile Frizette

S. (G1) on October 10.