PETE PERKINS
HOT SPRINGS — It looked on paper as if it might become the most contentious stakes race to this point in the Oaklawn Park season.
As it turned out, the winner of the $125,000 one-mile Martha Washington Stakes for 3-year-old fillies made simple, straightforward work of the other seven well-regarded entrants, each packed with top-flight experience. Chanel’s Legacy won by 2 1/2 lengths over My Sweet Stella in 1 minute, 38.51 seconds. Torrent was third, 3 3/4 lengths behind Sweet Stella and a nose in front of fourth-place Lovely Bernadette.
Perfect Wife broke through the gate before the start and apparently injured her mouth, but the 8/5 favorite of an estimated crowd of 15,000 and simulcast gamblers around the world nevertheless raced to the lead when the gates opened. Chanel’s Legacy was never further back than second nor more than a length behind Perfect Wife’s right flank through a quarter-mile in 23.51 seconds and a half in 46.90.
Chanel’s Legacy’s trainer Lynn Chleborad watched the race unfold on a flat-screen television near the paddock, and she ran through her typical constant commentary.
“She needs to go out in 24,” she said. “No, that’s too fast.”
Chleborad explained her concern after the race.
“When she went out in 23 and change, I thought, ‘Holy cow,’ ’’ Chleborad said. “I was worried, but then when we got to the quarter pole, I thought, ‘Well, she’s still strong.’ But I still wanted the wire to get there.”
Chanel’s Legacy, off at 13-1 with jockey Alex Birzer up, gradually took the lead as the first two raced around the final turn and through 6 furlongs in 1:11.61. My Sweet Stella, trained by Racing Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, was in fourth and looked geared for a strong finish but was momentarily trapped between Torrent and Lovely Bernadette and consequently steadied by jockey Carlos Marquez, Jr.
Shortly after Chanel’s Legacy moved in front, jockey Corey Lanerie pulled Perfect Wife up and out of the race.
“Maybe in hindsight, we probably should’ve scratched her,” Perfect Wife trainer Kenny McPeek said. “She’s got a pretty good cut in her mouth, but she’ll be fine. We’ll regroup.”
When the field turned into the stretch, with the one-mile finish line an eighth of a mile away, Chenal’s Legacy appeared in control. She was 1 1/2 lengths ahead of My Sweet Stella, who had regained enough momentum to hold onto second but was losing ground to the eventual winner.
“The best horse did not win the race,” Marquez, Jr. said. “I was on the best horse. If I don’t get stopped cold like that, I win.”
“I think we ran pretty good considering,” Lukas said. “We just about got wiped out in the turn. All of her momentum was stopped right there, but she came back and ran well. She finished great. She ran good enough to win today.”
With a 16th of a mile to go, victory for Chenal’s Legacy looked imminent, so much so that a man standing beside Chleborad hugged her. Chleborad acknowledged and returned the embrace, but a sort of superstition typical of sportsmen compelled her to keep her eyes on the television.
“The race still wasn’t over,” Chleborad said. “I was still like, ‘Wait. Wait. Not until she crosses the wire.’ ”
“She ran huge,” Birzer said. “She put me in a great spot. She just sat there as the leader weakened. She just picked it up an extra notch and just kept to her business.”
As for the nearly universal assessment of the Martha Washington field’s quality before the race, Chanel’s Legacy and My Sweet Stella entered off of first- and second-place finishes, respectively, in Oaklawn’s Dixie Belle Stakes on Jan. 21. Lovely Bernadette, Queen Bernardina, Ever So Clever, and Benner Island all participated in graded stakes races as 2-year-olds, topped by Hall of Famer Steve Asmussen trainee Ever So Clever’s runner-up finish in the Grade II Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs on Nov. 26.
The other two entrants, Perfect Wife, and Torrent, were each clear winners in their last starts, led by Perfect Wife, who won the one-mile Trapeze by five lengths at Remington Park in Oklahoma City in December. She started the Martha Washington with the highest last-race Brisnet and Beyer speed figures.
“Chanel’s Legacy beat some very good horses,” said Ron Moquett, trainer of Torrent. “I’m very happy for Lynn. She works hard, and she deserves a good horse.”
Chleborad sounds convinced at last.
“These fillies are like kids in high school,” she said. “You know, they do great in high school, but then when they go onto college or graduate school, they’re going against a lot of people who have done just as much as they have, but she did very well today against a very good group, and I’m so happy.”
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