Del Mar Debutante (G1) runner-up Mother Mother led nearly every step of the way in Sunday’s $103,116 Rags to Riches S. to win by 1 ¾ lengths on the opening day of Churchill Downs Fall Meet.
Mother Mother put herself on the lead early on in the one-mile Rags to Riches. With Florent Geroux looking very comfortable in the irons, the 2-year-old filly clicked off fractions of :45.16 for the half-mile and a sharp 1:09.82 for the six furlongs while opening up by about two lengths. Molto Bella gave chase in the stretch, but could get no close than the final margin.
“She got a little bit of a temperature after her last race which threw the Breeders’ Cup plans out,” said trainer Bob Baffert’s assistant Jimmy Barnes. “Bob said, ‘Let’s go out there and see what happens.’ We added blinkers to get her a little bit more aggressive. She was a little laid back but they’ve shown they help.”
Mother Mother, who won her debut by a half-dozen lengths on July 22, earned $61,503 on Sunday for her ownership group of George Bolton, Barry Hall, Barry Lipman, Mark Mathiesen and Andrew Molasky.
Mother Mother improved her record to 3-2-1-0 and earnings to $157,503. The dark bay filly is a half-sister to 2014 Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Commanding Curve and was bred in Kentucky by Tom F. Van Meter.