Girl Afraid and Ben Curtis picked up an easy win in the opening race at Fairgrounds on Saturday, February 25th. In just our 3rd start at the New Orleans track, it became the 13th different track America’s Pastime Stables has recorded a victory at, as the previous 2 starts resulted in 3rd place finishes. This 6 furlong race set up perfectly as Girl Afraid broke first, then stayed no more than half a length behind the leader as they dueled down the backstretch. As the horses rounded the turn into the homestretch, Ben Curtis took the lead and had Girl Afraid pull away from the pack to show why this filly was the 4:5 favorite. They coasted to the wire with a 5-lenght win in 1:11.10. It was the first win jockey Ben Curtis in his 2nd start for us and our 2nd win of the year with trainer Rob Falcone, Jr.
Meanwhile, a few hours later, we found ourselves in the winner’s circle again over in South Florida. Sweet Dani Girl picked up her second win of the year for us at Gulfstream Park. It was an Ortiz brothers double. Irad got the win with Sweet Dani Girl on January 14th, while Jose notched the victory on Saturday while Irad was at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh aboard White Abarrio in the $20 million Saudi Cup. Jose had Sweet Dani Girl track the pace 2-wide around the first turn and edged closer rounding the far turn to go 3-wide on the outside down the stretch before taking the lead in the final furlong to score the 1/2 length victory in the 1 1/16 mile race in 1:40.46. After collecting 4 wins with Irad, this was our first win with Jose in 5 starts and our second win with trainer Christophe Clement.