NYRA/Coglianese Photo

Alms spins back in two weeks to take G3 Matron

by Ryan Martin

Godolphin homebred Alms thrived off a two-week break from her debut win to capture Saturday's Grade 3, $150,000 Matron over the firm inner turf at Belmont Park. 

Trained by Michael Stidham, the City Zip bay arrived at the six-furlong event for juvenile fillies off of a maiden victory on September 19 over Belmont's Widener turf course. 

Breaking from the rail under Jose Lezcano, Alms settled near the rear of the six-horse field as Time Limit led through an opening quarter-mile in 22.42 seconds with Pure Wow applying pressure to her outside in second. 

As the field approached the far turn, Lezcano angled Alms three-wide and began inching her way closer to the front. She received her cue from Lezcano at the top of the stretch as Time Limit extended her lead to two lengths. In the final sixteenth, Alms displayed an efficient late kick and wore down the pacesetter to win by 1 ¼ lengths in a final time of 1:09.30. 

Time Limit was second 2 ½ lengths ahead of fellow Mike Maker trainee A Freud of Mama in third.

Karak, Pure Wow and Classy Sadie completed the order of finish. 

Alms gave Godolphin and Lezcano a stakes double after the owner-jockey combo notched a win in the Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational with Final Frontier.

Lezcano said he wanted to urge Alms into a winning rhythm early in the Matron.

"At the three-eighths pole, I had to start asking her. She's still young and a little bit green," Lezcano said. "I wanted to ask her a little bit earlier because I know the turf is playing a little bit fast today and I didn't want to fall too far behind. Once I asked, she went on well to win the race. I think she can go longer."

Bred in Kentucky, Alms is out of Charity Belle who also produced dual turf stakes winner Hallie Belle, who also was conditioned by Stidham. 

"We've always been real high on this filly, we trained her sister as well, who was a stakes winner and graded placed," said Ben Trask, assistant to Stidham. "We ran her back a little quick but we wanted to see what we had. She trains at Fair Hill on the synthetic track and she does everything right. At the break, I would like her to be a little bit closer, but when she broke she looked at the horses a little bit and then again on the turn. When she got outside she finished well and came home nice."

Returning $3.30 as the 3-5 mutuel favorite, Alms banked $82,500 from the win, enhancing her career earnings to $123,750. 

Manny Franco, aboard runner-up turf debuter Time Limit, said he was pleased with his filly's effort. 

"She broke well. I let her do her thing," said Franco. "She was comfortable and handled the turf well, first time on it. I couldn't ask for more. She gave me everything she had. I really like her better on the turf - much better."