Thanks to a vintage Patrick Husbands ride, ARISTELLA upset the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes on November 30 at Woodbine. The two-year-old by More Than Ready – Back to Love by Street Cry (Ire) came into the 1 1/16 miles ‘Elizabeth as the only two-turn winner in the field and it came in handy. So did the trouble endured by heavily-favoured SHIFTY, who had to settle for fourth.
Sent off at 9-to-1, Aristella, owned by New York-based Flying Zee Racing Stables and trained by Rachel Halden, was wide and in the back early in the race, despite dawdling fractions of 26.40 and 52.92. Sensing the slow pace, Husbands let his dark bay filly slide all the way up to stalk the leaders Orient Beach, Regal Moment and Ready for Candy down the backstretch, Meanwhile, Shifty was in a wrestling match with jockey Sahin Civaci to stay a couple of lengths back in a crowded group.
Ready for Candy and US jockey Julien Leparoux took the lead into the final turn and Husbands was following along. Aristella moved three wide into the stretch and battled Ready for Candy through six furlongs in 1:17.4, (almost hard to believe) and eventually put her neck out for the win. The final time of 1:48.74, if correct, was the slowest since an all-weather track was put in at Woodbine in 2006.
Aristella was ninth on the grass in her debut at Saratoga when trained by Bill Mott. The Ontario-bred was sent to Halden and was fifth in a turf maiden race before she won her maiden on the Tapeta in October. She was seventh in the Grade 3 Mazarine in her most recent race.
Flying Zee Stable was founded by the late Carl Lizza and was one of the biggest stables in New York. Lizza’s widow Viane now runs a more consolidated Flying Zee Racing Stables. Carl Lizza won over 700 races racing under Flying Zee Stables.
Aristella was bred by Peter Berglar Racing Interests LLC and Anderson Farms. She is from the mare Back to Love who was unplaced in one start and is a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Necessary Evil and Anderson Farms’ good mare Orchard Beach (Tapit), dam of stakes winner and top sire Sergei Prokofiev.
Back to Love has had three foals to race and two winners.
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