White Rose noses out competition in Dowager

White Rose started to advance between horses to improve her position before

shifting out six wide leaving the far turn. The gray continued to gain ground on

the outside in the stretch, while Caroline Thomas made her way from the back of

the pack into contention late. Caroline Thomas looked to be bottled up near the

quarter pole, found a seam in the final yards and surged through horses on the

inside, but White Rose was all out to the wire to get up for her second career

stakes victory.

"I had a good trip from the 14 hole," jockey Shaun Bridgmohan said. "Kenny

and I had spoken about it; we needed to let her run a little bit early. I ended

up having a good trip with her. She was trying hard the whole way. I never gave

up on her. The more I asked her, the more she dug in for me."

Caroline Thomas had to settle for second and was a half-length clear of

third-place finisher Appealing Cat, who got up by a neck over Cat's Claw in

fourth. Frivolous, Ann of the Dance, Inimitable Romanee, Sky High Lady, Charlie

Em, Left a Message, La Malaguena, Topic, I O Ireland and First Romance rounded

out the order of finish. Gathering and Maid On a Mission were on the

also-eligible list and did not draw in.

White Rose stopped the teletimer in 2:31 1/5 for the 1 1/2-mile test over the

firm turf. Sent off as the 8-1 fifth choice she rewarded her supporters with

$18.60 for the score.

"We did the best we could, but we had to get around 13 (other horses)," said

Joe Rocco Jr., rider of runner-up Caroline Thomas. "With a large field, coming

from last, I had to snake my way through them and I had to wait a little bit.

With a clean trip I think we win, but all we could do was the best we could. She

always settles in the back, and every time I've ridden her she's made a really

big run. It's just the circumstances of grass racing that you have to get lucky

snaking your way through, and today it didn't quite work out." 

White Rose broke her maiden as a three-year-old on the grass at Gulfstream

Park in her fourth career start. She finished runner-up in her stakes debut in

the Glen Falls over a muddy Saratoga track in a race that was taken off the turf

last September. White Rose returned to the turf and was off the board in the

Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont and Grade 3 Long Island Handicap at

Saratoga to close out the year.

The daughter of Tapit was third in an allowance at this distance over the

course in April and finished sixth in the Keertana Stakes at Churchill Downs the following month. She was seen coming in

13th in the Grade 3 Modesty Handicap two starts back at Arlington and was

exiting her first stakes victory in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon Stakes

last month. White Rose banked $75,000 for the win to boost her bank account to

$392,899 from a 17-5-4-2 career line.

Bred in Kentucky by J. S. McDonald, White Rose is out of the stakes-placed El

Prado mare Garden Dance, who is a half-sister to stakes scorer All Dolled Up.

The gray's third dam is multiple stakes winner Music Queen and her fourth dam is

multiple Canadian champion Royal Tara. 

White Rose sold as a weanling for $210,000 at the Keeneland November sale and

was purchased for $160,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The

gray returned to the ring as a two-year-old in training and was bought for

$225,000 at the Keeneland April sale.

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