Ol’ Fashion Gal held off the late charge of Rainha Da Bateria to give the 2-year-old Sky Mesa filly her first stakes win in the $150,000 Jimmy Durante S. (G3) Saturday at Del Mar.
Sky Mesa now has eight stakes juveniles in 2014, second-most on the 2014 2-year-old sire list.
The Jimmy Durante, formerly run as the Miesque S. at Hollywood Park, drew a field of 11 juvenile distaffers. Ol’ Fashion Gal, under Joe Talamo, got a good ground-saving trip early on while just off the pace, then slipped up the rail to get the lead in mid-stretch to outlast Three Chimney’s Rainha Da Bateria, who had rallied from last with a quarter mile to run.
The final time for the mile on the firm turf is 1:37.27.
“She loves the turf. You can see that,” said Talamo. “Since they switched her over, she’s two for two. She’s getting better with each race. I had a perfect trip today. I got over (to the rail) and saved ground all the way. Then there was a little opening on the rail; not a big one, but just big enough. She shot right through there.”
Ol’ Fashion Gal, who broke her maiden just two weeks prior to the Durante, has won two of three lifetime starts and earned $123,850 for owner John Oxley.
Out of the stakes-placed Little Hussy, Ol’ Fashion Gal is a half-sister to stakes winner Spirited Miss and comes from the same family as top-class sprinter Mr. Greeley.
