After a two-week sabbatical, Beautiful Lady returned to the track and tripped-out to win in the featured $14,000 conditioned event for fillies and mares at Plainridge Park on Friday afternoon (August 4).
Beautiful Lady (Greg Merton) left for position and tucked in second behind the front-running Iheartquestionmark (Steve Nason) at the quarter in :26.2.
Positions remained unchanged until the :55.4 half when Hilaria (Nick Graffam) pulled first-over and started to advance. Hilaria drew alongside Iheartquestionmark and the two matched strides to the three-quarters in 1:24 while Beautiful Lady lay in wait third behind them.
The head-end duel continued around the far turn and to the top of the stretch when Beautiful Lady found a sliver of room along the pylons and shot the gap. Merton rocked and rocked and pushed her through and then Beautiful Lady did the rest, pacing away to a one-length victory in 1:53.
The win was the third of the year for Beautiful Lady ($4.80) and it pushed her seasonal earnings to $32,467 for owners Lester Gelardi Jr. and Anthony Passafaro. The six-year-old daughter of Rocknroll Hanover is trained by Monique Cohen.
Steve Nason had a banner afternoon at The Ridge driving three winners and training two of them as well. The track's leading driver, Greg Merton, also had a driving double on the afternoon.
Live racing resumes at Plainridge Park on Monday afternoon with the first post set at 4 p.m.
(With files from Plainridge Park)