Runnymoore Racing’s Alla Breve upsets $75,000 Jameela in Stakes Debut. (Maryland Jockey Club Photo)
David Joseph/Maryland Jockey Club
Runnymoore Racing’s Alla Breve came with a steady run down the center of the stretch to reel in front-running Hollywood Walk and Bosserati and emerge from a three-way photo a head winner of the $75,000 Jameela.
Ridden by Horacio Karamanos for trainer Michael Matz, Alla Breve ($17.80) covered six furlongs over a firm Fort Marcy turf course in 1:09.15 to notch her second straight victory following a come-from-behind neck triumph in an open June 14 allowance going 5 ½ furlongs on the Laurel grass.
Alla Breve, making her stakes debut, was unhurried in the early going as 2023 Stormy Blues winner Bosserati broke running and quickly established the lead through a quarter-mile in 22.94 seconds and a half in 45.95, pressed to her outside by 3-2 favorite Kissed by Fire with Speightful Sis saving ground inside in third and Hollywood Walk in the clear three wide in fourth.
Bosserati led by a slim margin as the field turned for home attempting to hold off bids up the rail from Speightful Sis and on her outside by Hollywood Walk, who forged a short lead inside the eighth pole. Meanwhile, Karamanos had swung Alla Breve out at the top of the stretch and they continued to gain ground until winning a head bob at the wire.
Hollywood Walk was second, a neck ahead of Bosserati. It was another length back to Speightful Sis followed by One Silk Stocking, Circle Home, Kissed by Fire, Money’s Worth, Bay Street and Double Fireball. Mattitude, the lone also-eligible, and main-track-only entrant Royal Whisper were scratched.
“She’s been a tough little filly for us,” Matz said. “We’re quite happy with the way she’s come around this year. We ran her a couple times in Florida and then gave her a bit of a break and she’s come back and has been kind of rewarding us for the break we gave her.”
Alla Breve, a 4-year-old daughter of Mendelssohn out of the Curlin mare Split It, was purchased for $160,000 by Runnymoore’s Greg and Caroline Bentley as a yearling in October 2021 and captured her debut the following fall in a 5 ½-furlong turf maiden special weight at Laurel. She now has four wins, one second and one third from 10 starts and $169,120 in purse earnings.
“We got her down at the Timonium sale and one of the reasons we did is because she was a Maryland-bred,” Matz said. “We thought we were stepping up a little bit here and she handled this. She has been training well at home and she worked well last week, and we wanted to give her this opportunity.”
Meaning ‘beautiful’ in Arabic, Jameela won 16 stakes including the Maskette (G1), Ladies (G1) and Delaware (G1) handicaps before being retired following the 1982 season as the first Maryland-bred to surpass $1 million in lifetime earnings. She had two foals, the first being 1988 champion sprinter Gulch, before passing away from colic in 1985. She was elected to the Maryland-bred Hall of Fame in 2013.
