Deloraine rallies to win Belle Mahone Stakes at Woodbine
Deloraine got the perfect Tapeta trip, then ran down Stylish Sue to win the Grade 3 Belle Mahone by 3/4 of a length and claim her first graded stakes victory.
The pace told the story long before Deloraine got to the front. Stylish Sue went straight to work in the Grade 3, $150,000 Belle Mahone Stakes at Woodbine, but the fractions, :23.53, :48.18 and 1:12.67, made the leaders pay for every step and left the race open for a closer with the right trip.
That was Deloraine. The Godolphin homebred settled fifth early, saved ground, and waited for Ryan Munger, making his first ride aboard the 4-year-old filly, to find the opening. When the lane came together on Woodbine’s all-weather Tapeta surface, Deloraine cut the corner sharply on the far turn, got first run on the tiring favourite and edged clear inside the final 70 yards. She hit the wire in 1:44.47 for 1 1/16 miles, 3/4 of a length better than Stylish Sue, with Equitas, Elysian Field, No Time, Hurricane Clair and Power of Destiny (GB) completing the seven-horse field.
It was the kind of win that looked stronger than the margin. Deloraine had horse when Munger asked, and the move back to Woodbine and back to the synthetic surface was the right fit after she had previously won on all-weather at Presque Isle Downs. Emma Browne Lovatt called the return to all-weather and to Woodbine “the perfect combination,” and Munger said he had “a ton of horse” and believed the pace worked in the filly’s favor. She returned $20.00 to win.
The victory gave Deloraine her first graded stakes win and reinforced the idea that her best form is tied to Tapeta, where she now has two wins from two tries. The Candy Ride filly out of Elaine’s Cat already had placed on dirt and turf, but the Belle Mahone pushed her profile higher for Godolphin by showing she is more than a one-surface runner. At 3-for-11 lifetime, she still has the record of an improving filly rather than a finished product, and the controlled late move she produced here suggests there may be more upside ahead in the older filly-and-mare stakes division.
The Belle Mahone also landed in the middle of a standout afternoon for Godolphin at Woodbine, where Maycocks Bay added the Grade 2 Eclipse Stakes to complete a graded-stakes double. For Deloraine, though, the significance was even cleaner: she did not just win, she announced herself as a filly whose ceiling may be better than her résumé had shown.
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