Winning in near wire-to-wire fashion in this event last year, Caviart Ally put forth a repeat performance when darting to the front and striding to a 1:48.3 mile in the $250,000 Milton Stakes on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Driver Andrew McCarthy motored the five-year-old Bettors Delight mare to the top from post 8 with Apple Bottom Jeans yielding for the pocket heading to a :26.4 opening quarter. McCarthy then slowed the tempo towards a :55 half, forcing 4-5 favourite Youaremycandygirl to angle first over from fourth.
Youaremycandygirl approached Caviart Ally circling the final turn but only reached her wheel as she sprinted to three-quarters in 1:21.3. The Brett Pelling trainee then kicked away from her competition to win while under pursuit from Kissin In The Sand in second and Seaswift Joy N in third.
“She was terrific tonight,” Andrew McCarthy said after the race. “Brett’s done a great job with her. She’s been terrific all year—we just run into Shartin every week [and] it makes things tough. She was definitely good tonight—works out great that Apple Bottom Jeans has so much gate speed and she’s usually happy to follow us. We got to steal a little bit of a second quarter there and I figured she’d pace a pretty good back half. I figured she’d be tough to catch from there. She was on her game tonight—I knew post parading she would be good; she usually tells me. She was very focused and had her mind on the job.”
Owned by Caviart Farms, Caviart Ally has won six races from 15 starts this season and 22 from 68 overall, amassing $1,629,133 in earnings. She has hit the board in every start this year—a majority in which she finished behind division-leader Shartin N.
“She’s so consistent,” Brett Pelling said after the race. “She’s a great doer and loves her work and she’s relatively sound and doesn’t mind travelling. She’s experienced a lot of wars and she handles it. I [thought] the favourite coming first up on her was a big ask. I was pretty confident—[McCarthy] was riding, hadn’t pulled the plugs and I thought ‘You know what, she’s doing it tonight.’”
Caviart Ally paid $10.70 to win.