Rose to Gold splashes home a winner in sloppy Fantasy

Kathleen Amaya and Raffaele Centofanti's Rose to Gold easily captured her

final prep for the May 3 Kentucky Oaks when wiring Wednesday's Grade 3, $400,000

Fantasy

at Oaklawn Park over a sloppy, sealed track. With jockey Calvin Borel aboard,

the Friends Lake miss ran to her odds as the 3-5 favorite and paid $3.40, $2.40

and $2.10 for the 4 1/2-length score.

Rose to Gold easily grabbed the lead from her 3 post and set splits of :23

1/5, :47 2/5, 1:12 1/5 and 1:38 3/5 while tracked by Manuka Honey throughout.

That rival tried to make a run at Rose to Gold, with Marathon Lady ranging up on

the outside rounding the turn, but neither could catch the chestnut miss, who

drew off in the lane to finish 1 1/16 miles in 1:45 4/5.

Manuka Honey held the runner-up spot by a length over Marathon Lady, who in

turn was 1 3/4 lengths up on longshot Liberty Girl in fourth. Inspired Exchange,

Hung the Moon and Legal Mine completed the order of finish.

Rose to Gold will now enter the Kentucky Oaks owning two straight wins,

having also taken the Honeybee at Oaklawn on March 9. She opened her sophomore

season for trainer Sal Santoro with a runner-up effort in the Martha Washington

after closing out 2012 a half-length victress of the Delta Downs Princess in

Louisiana.

The chestnut took her maiden debut by 13 lengths last August at Calder in the

Lindsay Frolic, then followed that up with a 13 1/2-length win in the Brave Raj

before suffering her only off-the-board run to date when trying Keeneland's

Polytrack in the Alcibiades. Now boasting a 5-1-0 mark from seven starts, she's

banked $717,889 in career earnings.

Bred in Kentucky by Joe Sr., Joe Jr., John and Karen Mulholland, Rose to Gold

was a bargain when selling for only $1,400 as a Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter

Mixed yearling then RNAing at $10,000 as an OBS yearling in August 2011.

She is out of the unraced Tabasco Cat mare Saucy, who counts as a full

brother Grade 2-placed winner Sun Cat. Rose to Gold's fourth dam is Group 3

queen El Mina, whose descendants include Group 1 star and dual highweight

Caitano, Group 2 hero Utmost Respect and Group 3 scorers El Fabulous, Steppe

Dancer, St Mawes and Artic Envoy.

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