ARCADIA, Calif.—Idle since July 23, Phil D’Amato’s English-bred Amy C came back running on Saturday at Santa Anita, as she ran down her heavily favored stablemate Connie Swingle to win the $100,000 Senator Ken Maddy Stakes by 1 ½ lengths.
With Umberto Rispoli getting his third stakes win on the day and his second in combination with D’Amato, Amy C got about 6 ½ furlongs down the hillside turf course in 1:12.36.
Breaking from the far outside in a field of 10 fillies and mares three and up, Aqua Seaform Shame sped to the lead with Connie Swingle a close second. “Connie” drew even at the dirt crossing and those two went head and head inside the sixteenth pole whereupon Amy C swept by them both.
“It was pretty easy. There was a lot of speed ahead of me. Around the turn I felt I had a nice horse underneath, and I was just waiting until I crossed the chute to send her, and I knew with that pace it was a ‘come to me’, so the filly did the rest, Rispoli said.
“I was pretty confident coming into the race. The last time we tried to stretch out in a mile it didn’t work out, but Phil does a good job of taking it back in a short distance. Luckily, we had the six and a half down the hill. Most of the horses love it, and she’s such a beautiful racehorse to ride. When you put all of this in a combo, it comes out pretty well. Because of that, I had a very nice trip. I was behind the speed, and the filly has always traveled pretty well for me. Once we got across the chute, she did the rest, and I went and caught the other two horses ahead of me,” he added.
A well beaten eighth going one mile on turf in the restricted Osunitas Stakes at Del Mar July 23, Amy C, who was an impressive 1 ½ length allowance winner in her only previous hillside try, was off at 7-2 and paid $9.40, $3.40 and $2.60.
A 4-year-old filly owned by Madaket Stables, LLC, Michael Dubb and Robert LaPenta, Amy C bagged $60,000, increasing her earnings to $188,385 while running her overall mark to 9-4-1-0.
For D’Amato, it marked his second stakes win on the day, as Going Global took the Grade II Goldikova six races prior.
“She’s an older filly, Connie Swingle (2nd ) is a three-year-old, running against older, so I think that kind of helped Amy C out at the end of the day, but at the same time Amy C has found a home on the downhill turf course. She is two for two. I think she is just kind of an extended sprinter. We keep trying her at a mile because I really didn’t want to run her going five-eighths, I thought that’d be too short, so we took a shot and found out it’s best to go around one turn,” D’Amato said.
California-bred Connie Swingle, a 3-year-old filly unbeaten in three hillside starts, was second best on the day, finishing a nose in front of longshot Lady Jae. Ridden by Kyle Frey, Connie Swingle was off at 4-5 and paid $2.20 and $2.10.
Off at 49-1 with Hector Berrios, Lady Jae paid $9.40 to show.
Fractions on the race were 21.78, 43.79 and 1:06.36.
