Mrs. Astor goes back to back in the Red Carpet Stakes, Benoit Photo
Jasmine Torrez
Favored Mrs. Astor defends her title in the $100,000 Grade III Red Carpet Stakes going one and three-eighths miles on turf.
With stablemate Will Then carving out the fractions, favored Mrs. Astor (8-5), patiently handled by Umberto Rispoli, sat back on the rail in sixth with Juan Hernandez and Paradise Lake (3-1) to their outside just two lengths off the lead. As the field came around the far turn for the second time Will Then’s lead started to diminish to a half length as Public Assembly (4-1) and Antonio Fresu came up on his inside. Mrs. Astor took up the chase behind Public Assembly, found a seam between the horses, and surged through in a gutty move to win the Red Carpet by a neck. It was another one and a half lengths back to Paradise Lake who traveled four wide past the eighth pole to hold off a late charge by D’Amato’s Sun Of Hill by a neck for the show.
“Coming around the turn I can see (Public Assembly with Antonio Fresu aboard) is the horse to beat,” Rispoli said, “I was just begging for a gap. So when Antonio opened for me, I could see (Will Then) was getting tired, I took the gap and she really sprints well. Jonathan prepped the filly really well for this.”
A winner of the Red Carpet Stakes in 2024, Mrs. Astor has three graded victories and five overall.
“We knew we’d get the rail trip and save ground,” said trainer Jonathan Thomas, “You always hope that they will extricate themselves. There was enough horse there, you just hoped for a little bit of an opening and it worked out like we hoped, and that’s rare. She is so genuine, she shows up on anything we run her on.”
A homebred for George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stables, Mrs. Astor, a five-year-old mare has improved her record to 21-7-5-4 with $567,235 in earnings. She returned $5.40, $3.80, and $2.60 to her backers.
Trained by Phil D’Amato, Public Assembly paid $4.00 and $2.80. Paradise Lake, trained by Peter Eurton, returned $3.00.
Fractions of the race were 24.95, 49.89, 1:15.77, 1:41.58, 2:06.79 and a final time of 2:18.86.
Live racing resumes with a nine-race card on Monday, first post time 12:30 P.M.
UMBERTO RISPOLI (Mrs. Astor – Winner) – “She broke pretty good. She is a filly that even though she goes slow you have to ask her to be too close. What happened last time was we tried to be close, the pace was slow and she didn’t finish with a kick. So, Jonathan decided today that if we are going to be three back, to make it close. I told him that if they go slow, we are going to get stopped. He said to take the chance. When the trainer asks you, you know, to take the risk, and do what makes you feel comfortable. Coming around the turn I can see (Public Assembly with Antonio Fresu aboard) is the horse to beat. I was just begging for a gap. So when Antonio opened for me, I could see (Will Then) was getting tired, I took the gap and she really sprints well. Jonathan prepped the filly really well for this.”
JONATHAN THOMAS (Mrs. Astor, Winner) – “We knew we’d get the rail trip and save ground. You always hope that they will extricate themselves. There was enough horse there, you just hoped for a little bit of an opening and it worked out like we hoped, and that’s rare. She is so genuine, she shows up on anything we run her on.”
