Mission Of Joy and Rispoli get up in final stride for the 5-year-old mare’s first graded stakes win. (Benoit Photo)
Win earned a fees-paid berth to the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—A desperate final surge from Mission of Joy in Saturday’s Grade II, $200,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes resulted in her first graded stakes win and a spot in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.
With jockey Umberto Rispoli aboard, Mission of Joy (11-1) came storming down the middle of the stretch and in the final stride, surged past eastern invader Speed Shopper (14-1) to win by a head. A 5-year-old mare by Kitten’s Joy, Mission of Joy is trained by Phil D’Amato and owned by RyZan Sun Racing LLC and Madaket Stables LLC.
“I had a really good trip,” Rispoli said. “She settled right where I wanted, and once I took her outside, she showed an incredible turn of foot. She prefers to come around horses instead of going through small gaps, and she responded beautifully today. I hadn’t worked with her before this race, but she gave me all the confidence out there.”
Speed Shopper, ridden by Kazushi Kimura for trainer William Walden, finished a half-length in front of Starry Heavens (7-2) in third.
The winning time for Mission of Joy on firm turf was 2:00.03 following fractions of 23.63, 48.44, 1:13.04 and 1:37.36.
“She just has one style and that usually gets her the best outcome, to kind of sit back and come with a run,” D’Amato said. “Whether it works out or not, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t, but today it did.”
Mission of Joy was making her third start for D’Amato after previously being based in the east with trainer Graham Motion. In two prior Southern California starts, Mission of Joy finished sixth in the GII Yellow Ribbon and third in the GII John C. Mabee, both at Del Mar.
“I think also, she came from back east and the owner said that every time they ran her on a firm turf course she ran a better race,” D’Amato said. “We get plenty of that in California and that has helped her out as well.”
Mission of Joy improved to 21: 6-0-4 with $680,667 in earnings.
Mission of Joy paid $25.80, $9.80 and $5.40. Speed Shopper returned $11.40 and $5.80. Starry Heavens with Antonio Fresu up for D’Amato, paid $3.60.
