Senorita

Dennis E. Weir's VIRDEN (Tactical Cat) was sent off the longest shot at 26-1

in Sunday's $111,900

Senorita S. (G3), but she sprinted to a clear lead when the

gates opened and led wire to wire. Trained by Dan McFarlane, the three-year-old

filly set fractions of :23 4/5, :47 4/5, 1:11 4/5 and 1:23 2/5 on a firm turf

course before finishing off the one-mile affair in 1:35 2/5 under jockey Omar

Figueroa. The dark bay spurted clear from her rivals when asked leaving the far turn, and

then had to dig down in deep stretch to withstand the late rally of Three

Degrees (Ire) (Singspiel [Ire]) by a nose.

The Turf Paradise shipper returned $54.40, $17.80 and $7.60 to her backers,

starting the $172.10 exacta ($1) with 3-1 second choice Three Degrees, who paid

$6 and $4.20. Thatswhatimean (Belong to Me) finished another 1 1/4 lengths back

at nearly 6-1 and was worth $4.40. It was another nose back to Unusual Spring

(Unusual Heat) in fourth. The $1 trifecta totaled $1,185.20, and the 9-7-2-10

superfecta ($1) was good for $16,136.20.

Royal Copenhagen (Fr) (Inchinor [GB]) came next under the wire and was

followed by Dramatic (Dynaformer), 5-2 favorite Shining Energy (Rahy), Royal

Wave (Royal Academy), Private Banking (Fr) (Anabaa) and Mashina (GB) (Vettori).

Bred in Kentucky by Charles Nuckols and Sons, Virden was purchased for

$15,000 at the 2003 Keeneland September Yearling sale and is the second foal from the

winning Make a Deal (Private Terms), who is also the dam of a yearling filly by

Broken Vow. Winner of the Scottsdale H. last year on the Turf Paradise main track, Virden made

her turf bow in her previous outing and easily captured the Sun Devil S. in

wire-to-wire fashion by 6 3/4 lengths. She now owns a 7-4-2-1 mark with $145,840 in earnings.