Beauty Reigns much the best in Listed $175K Pumpkin Pie
Tranquility Lake Farms’ Kentucky homebred Beauty Reigns stalked and pounced to a comfortable two-length score in Saturday’s Listed $175,000 Pumpkin Pie, a seven-furlong sprint for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Belmont Park.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott and piloted by Junior Alvarado, the dual Grade 1-placed Into Mischief gray secured her first career stakes win in her eighth attempt.
“She ran well,” Mott said. “She actually looks really good. A lot of horses this time of year are kind of growing a fuzzy coat, she came down looking good, kind of like she was ready to go.”
Tranquility Lake Farms’ Emily Bushnell, daughter of the late owner-breeder Marty Wygod, noted her appreciation for the hard-trying filly.
“She always shows up and always tries, and Junior knows her so well. It just set up well for her today, so, lucky to be here,” Bushnell said. “It’s been going on for so long with my family, and to carry it on for my dad feels really special. She has a younger brother that just shipped to Ocala to start pre-training and we’re so excited about him. This family just keeps getting better and better.”
The complexion of the race changed when 1-5 mutuel favorite Senza Parole hopped at the start and spotted the field several lengths before rushing up under jockey Flavien Prat to press Icona Mama through an opening quarter-mile in 23.74 seconds over the good main track.
The Manny Franco-piloted Icona Mama led to the turn with Senza Parole pestering to her outside with Beauty Reigns content to save ground in third position to the inside of longshot Shore War as the half-mile elapsed in 46.94.
“It was a four-horse field, and I think, with her, you just have to ride her the way she wants to be,” Alvarado said. “When Senza Parole came up on the outside, the pace was setting up the way we wanted it, and she finished up really good.”
Alvarado tipped his charge out once the field straightened for home, shook the reins and quickly overtook the embattled frontrunners, with Beauty Reigns easily powering clear of her rivals under right-handed encouragement to earn the win in a final time of 1:22.56.
“She was so game. I couldn’t wait to get her on the outside. With the way she was traveling, I knew she was going to give me a good kick at the end,” Alvarado said.
A game and determined Icona Mama held second by a neck over Senza Parole with Shore War rounding out the order of finish. Amalfi Drive and Indy Bay were scratched.
Franco said the Flint Stites-trained Icona Mama performed admirably.
“The race changed out of the gate when the four-horse [Senza Parole] missed the break. My filly broke good enough, so I just said, ‘let me see if I can go.’ I like the way she ran,” Franco said.
Prat said his race was lost at the break aboard the Chad Brown-trained Senza Parole.
“She broke slow and couldn’t overcome that. The pace was slow, so I was going to creep myself up there without using her. It just didn’t go our way,” Prat said.
Beauty Reigns earned her Grade 1 placings with third-place finishes at Saratoga Race Course in the 2025 Test presented by Ticketmaster and the Resorts World Casino Ballerina two starts back on August 29. She entered from a third-place try in the local Grade 2 Gallant Bloom on October 1 when 4 1/4-lengths back of runner-up Senza Parole in a race won by R Disaster, who was subsequently eighth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
Mott indicated he would consider Beauty Reigns for the six-furlong $175,000 Garland of Roses on December 6 next here.
“We won’t rule it out. We’ll see. She’s had a long year, but we’ll have a look, I don’t know if that’s a little short for her or not,” Mott said.
Beauty Reigns, out of the unraced Tapit mare Ilsa, banked $96,250 in victory while improving her record to 16-5-3-4. She returned $7.46 for a $2 win bet. Her third dam is 2009 Broodmare of the Year Sweet Life – a homebred for Pam and Martin Wygod, who produced multiple Grade 1-winners Sweet Catomine and Life Is Sweet.
Live racing resumes Sunday at Belmont Park with an eight-race program. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern.
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America’s Day at the Races presents daily coverage and analysis of the fall meet at Belmont Park on the networks of FOX Sports. For the complete broadcast schedule, visit https://www.nyra.com/belmont/racing/tv-schedule/.
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