Take A Breath edges Royal Heroine Stakes, earns back-to-back graded wins

Take A Breath did more than win the Royal Heroine Stakes. She turned Santa Anita’s Grade 3 mile on turf into a statement, running down a seasoned group of older fillies and mares and backing up her Santa Ana score with a second straight graded stakes victory.

The Mark Glatt trainee covered the mile in 1:35.95 over a firm course in Race 9 on April 25 at Santa Anita Park, paying $11.20 after edging May Day Ready at the wire. Grand Slam Smile finished third, a half-length behind May Day Ready, while Tirupati, A Thousand Miles, Watchtower, Ripassare, Innovative and Rosie Jeeks filled out the order behind the top trio. For a division built on consistency, Take A Breath just became a lot harder to ignore.

The shape of the race mattered. Emisael Jaramillo said he thought the mile might be a little short for Take A Breath, so he placed her closer to the pace than usual, and that tactical adjustment kept her in striking range when the real running started. That was a meaningful change from her previous U.S. mile efforts, when she had failed to hit the board in two starts. This time, she answered the distance question and did it against a better class of opposition than she has faced in most of her short American campaign.

The result also gave immediate context to the filly’s rise. Six weeks earlier, Take A Breath had won the Santa Ana Stakes by a nose at 1 1/4 miles, her first graded stakes success. Now she has consecutive graded wins at different distances, a combination that tells you she is not just enjoying a hot streak but developing into a versatile turf mare with options. She has five wins from 14 career starts and earnings of $134,670, and all of those victories have come over the last two seasons as she has matured.

For Jaramillo, Glatt, Chivalry Thoroughbred Racing, Rancho Temescal Thoroughbred Partners and breeder Highgate Stud, this was the kind of performance that changes a horse’s profile. Take A Breath, a 4-year-old filly by Bated Breath out of Darling Grace by Nayef, has moved from promising import to a legitimate player in Southern California’s older turf division. If she keeps progressing, the next step is no longer about whether she belongs in graded company. It is about how high the bar should be set.