La Bella Vita N overcame her assigned outside post position in the seven-horse featured field on Sunday evening (Aug. 7) at Saratoga Casino Hotel.
The Alicia Gray trainee was making her debut in the Fillies and Mares Open Handicap at the Spa following a successful stint at Plainridge Park in Massachusetts.
La Bella Vita N advanced a bit in the early going in Sunday’s $16,000 Open as Shawn Gray got her away fourth.
Like La Bella Vita N, Always Watching (Jordan Derue) was in the local Open for the first time in her young career and drew the rail for Sunday’s try. That longshot was aggressive from the get-go and the 11-1 shot carved out first half fractions of :27.1 and :56.4 before rebuffing a first-over bid from the race’s favourite, Demeter N (Larry Stalbaum).
All the while, La Bella Vita N drafted behind the cover of the favourite before fanning three-wide around the final turn. The seven-year-old New Zealand invader surged in the stretch and completed her swoop of the group to score in 1:53.1 in her first ever Open win at Saratoga. Always Watching finished a strong second while Birch Island Betty (Billy Dobson) came on to be third.
La Bella Vita N, a daughter of Changeover who is owned by Bowie Racing and Michael Goldberg Racing, paid $10.20 to win in the mild upset. The exacta returned $83 while the triple came back $364.
The victory in the Open was one of two on the card for Alicia Gray and Shawn Gray whose Spicytuna Bluechip scored earlier in the night.
Live racing will resume on Friday night at Saratoga with a 6:45 p.m. first post time. There will be a Pick 5 carryover of $2,326 starting in the evening’s first race.
(With files from Saratoga Casino Hotel)