Hot City Girl valiant in Broadway
by Najja Thompson
Returning to the inner dirt at Aqueduct Racetrack after her season opening third-place finish in January's Interborough for her second start of the year, Lady Shelia Stable's Hot City Girl picked up her first victory of the year, capturing the $100,000 Broadway for New York-breds on Saturday.
With Manny Franco aboard for the first time, the pair broke from post 6 as the odds-on favorite, stalked Court Dancer from second position as the leader set swift fractions of 22.55 seconds for the opening quarter-mile with the half going in 45.25 seconds.
At the quarter-pole, Hot City Girl was set down in full drive from the three-path. Overtaking Court Dancer at the eighth-pole, Hot City Girl extended away to the wire and held off a late charging Jet Majesty to secure the victory by 1 ¼ lengths.
The Linda Rice trainee completed the six-furlong distance in 1:11.56.
"Before the race, Linda told me Court Dancer had a lot of speed. I just tried to measure her as much as I could," said Franco. "She broke strong, but I was able to stay with the plan [and] sit just off of Court Dancer. I had the favorite horse in the race, and thankfully she got a good trip and we did it. She had a long stride heading towards the finish. She ran good."
Returning $4 for a $2 win wager, the 5-year-old daughter of City Zip boosted her career earnings to $668,150 earning her third career stakes win.
Following Jet Majesty in second was She's All Ready, Splendid Gold, Roman Ceres, Play Me a Memory, Court Dancer and Flatterywillgetyou to complete the order of finish.
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