Coachella Valley split rivals down the lane to earn her first stakes score in Saturday’s $150,000 Jammed Lovely Stakes, at Woodbine.
Trained by Reade Baker for Jus Luk Stables, Coachella Valley notched her third win in a row since adding blinkers to break her maiden in a $16,000 maiden claiming event on August 11.
The grey daughter of Even the Score followed that effort with an impressive four-length win in a $25,000 claiming race prior to making her stakes debut.
“Reade’s done a great job with this filly to get her confidence up,” said jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson. “You can see in the ranks where she’s moved up. He said we could win this race and we did.”
Tequilamockingbird, with David Moran up, set splits of :23.30 and :46.32 in the seven furlong ‘Poly’ stake, as Coachella Valley settled into position at the back of the pack.
Coachella Valley followed the lead of an advancing Silent Treat, piloted by Michelle Rainford, down the backstretch and waited patiently on the rail for Wilson to press the button.
Tequilamockingbird maintained a narrow lead turning into the stretch run with Silent Treat at her flank, but Wilson and Coachella Valley bravely split those rivals and ran off to a 1/2-length score. Checkered Past arrived on the scene late to earn place honours over Silent Treat.
Coachella Valley covered seven furlongs in 1:23.96.
“I thought there would be a little bit of pace in there, and that’s the way the race unfolded,” said Wilson. “She made up some ground and put her and myself in a nice position through the turn. I just had to squeeze through a tight hole to get up there, but she’s pretty game.”
Wilson was content to follow the lead of Silent Treat, a four-time winner in nine starts this season, down the backstretch.
“Silent Treat took a good hold of Michelle (Rainford) going down the backside,” said Wilson. “I respect her as a horse, she’s done well, so I decided to follow her and maybe get a shot on the inside, or maybe the outside, but it was the inside trip that we took.”
Coachella Valley finished well back in her first two efforts on the track, but has been untouchable since the addition of blinkers.
“We thought she was alright in the spring and then she seemed to tail off,” said Baker. “I don’t know if it’s as simple as putting blinkers on, but when we put the blinkers on it’s certainly night and day.”
Coachella Valley banked $90,000 in victory, while winning her third straight score from five career starts.
She returned $33.90, $9.60 and $6.50, pairing with Checkered Past ($3.10, $2.70) for a $122.30 (2-4) exactor. A 2-4-1 (Silent Treat, $5.10 to show) triactor was worth $554. Philzana completed a $1 Superfecta (2-4-1-6) worth $1688.15. Bangla Dancer was scratched.
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