Two-year-old fillies COLLECTING FLATTER and SPEEDY RIVER battled to the wire in the $125,000 My Dear Stakes at Woodbine on Saturday, July 16. Both gals are owned and were bred by Ivan Dalos’s Tall Oaks Farm. Collecting Flatter is a Kentucky-bred trained by Josie Carroll and Speedy River is an Ontario-bred trained by Mike DePaulo.
Sent off as the public’s top choice on a competitive odds board, Collecting Flatter charged out to the early lead with pesky Speedy River (Souper Speedy) to her outside.
Rounding the turn, Collecting Flatter appeared to create separation on Speedy River, but that would change at the head of the lane, as Speedy River battled up to even terms and appeared to take a slight advantage. However, Collecting Flatter showed plenty of determination to fight back and draw off late for near two-length victory in 1:05.22.
Kazushi Kimura rode Collecting Flatter for Carroll, who picked up her third win of the afternoon.
Colleen Dalos, daughter of Ivan and General Manager of Tall Oaks Farm said, “We usually don’t like to race against ourselves, but we had no choice but to put them in since we have so many beautiful two-year-olds.
“We cheer for them equally and we gave them the same instructions, it was fabulous to see them dueling it out, but truthfully in the end we own the mare Recollect and we’re always trying to improve on the percentages for our mares, so I had a slight edge, but just so happy to have them one-two.”
A daughter of Flatter – Recollect by El Prado (Ire), Collecting Flatter is now two for two to begin her career. Her debut victory came back on June 25 and was also a game effort.
After the Dalos fillies finished one-two, Damaso and State of Mind completed the top-four finishers.
Collecting Flatter returned $5.80 to win, while a $2 Exacta with the Dalos’ youngsters returned $21.
Dalos purchased RECOLLECT in 2010 for $32,000. She has produced nine foals of racing age for Dalos and all have been Kentucky-breds. The mare’s second foal was stakes winner Elusive Collection and she produced two other winners in addition to Collecting Flatter.
Recollect is a placed half-sister to Grade 1 winner Winter Memories. Both gals are out of multiple Grade 1 winner Memories of Silver.
Speedy River is out of the unraced mare River’s Way Only, bred by Dalos. The mare is by the Dalos-bred stallion My Way Only and this is her third foal.
~ with files from Woodbine Entertainment
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
