A determined Meilani wore down pacesetter Happy Destination late to earn her first career stakes victory in the $100,000 Alywow Stakes on Sunday at Woodbine.
Happy Destination broke sharply from post position 5 and earned the early lead from the field of 10, through an opening quarter-mile in 22.62. Meilani (pp 8), ridden by Kazushi Kimura for the first time, rated kindly in second, while longshot Stroke of Genius was a clear third.
Inside the 3-furlong marker, Kimura roused Meilani, who responded in the 2 path, by pulling to within a 1/2 length of Happy Destination as the pair cruised the opening half-mile in 45.69.
The leading duo engaged inside the 1/8th pole with Meilani outside of Happy Destination, and a tiring Stroke of Genius giving way to the hard-charging Irish-bred Flowerhead.
Trained by Kevin Attard, Meilani gamely wore down a stubborn Happy Destination in the final yards to win the 6 1/2 furlong sprint for three-year-old fillies by a 1/2 length in a final time of 1:18.17.
Kimura, the seventh rider to pilot Meilani in her now eight-race-career, was in from California for the weekend and made his Woodbine return a memorable one.
“My plan was… two or three horses might be sending harder, so I don’t need to go to the lead. I have a pocket trip,” said the former Sovereign and Eclipse Apprentice-winning jockey. “Just keep grinding, each stride just getting close to the leader.”
Meilani, a bay daughter of Omaha Beach – Tide Is High (by Broken Vow) broke her maiden at Woodbine last fall in her fourth career start, winning an inner turf mile race by 1 1/4 lengths. She opened her sophomore campaign, finishing sixth and third in two grass races at Gulfstream Park.
She entered the Alywow off a superb runner-up effort in the 7-furlong Ruling Angel Stakes on May 16th. Ridden by Pietro Moran and racing on synthetic for the first time, Meilani went off at 10-1, set a fast pace, but was caught late by Dixie Law. She earned an 86 Beyer Speed Figure in the Ruling Angel, the top synthetic figure in the field heading into the Alywow.
“She’s always shown talent from the get-go. She ran some credible races at two,” said Attard. “She’s got a lot of speed so she uses that to her advantage and puts herself in a good position. Last time she got beat to a good horse and was gallant in defeat, in a sense.
“When she came back and worked really well in the interim, we thought she was going to run a big race today.”
Bred in Kentucky by Jayne Johnson and Fergus Galvin and owned by X-Men Racing V LLC and Madaket Stables LLC, Meilan improved her record to 2-2-2 from eight starts.
Meilani opened at 9-2 on the morning line, went off at 5-2 and paid $7.40 for the win.
Happy Destination was second, Flowerhead (IRE) was third and 54-1 shot Stroke of Genius was fourth. Star Shoot Stakes winner and race favourite Mony Mony was bumped at the break and never a factor, finishing ninth in the field of ten.
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