The lone California-bred in the seven-horse Megahertz Stakes for
older fillies and mares at one mile on turf, 7-year-old A Jealous Woman
and Brice Blanc rushed inside 9-5 favorite In the Stars and Corey
Nakatani midway around the far turn and once again demonstrated her
gameness in a resolute stretch run to win by a neck over Irish-bred
Byrony and Garrett Gomez, covering the mile in 1:33.09.
“I decided to move when I did and to get inside Corey, because
if I went outside of him, I thought he’d float me out,” said Blanc. “On
the grass, you have to save ground. When I made the decision, I knew
she would quicken for me and keep that steady run going. She’s not one
of those fillies that have a quick acceleration but she has a steady,
long, fast run.”
On the strength of her strong second-place showing in the Grade
II Goldikova Stakes on Nov. 4, the daughter of Muqtarib was sent off as
the 2-1 second choice and paid $6.60, $3.80 and $2.80.
Owned by Three Cent Stable and trained by Francis Meza, A Jealous Woman wasn’t originally ticketed to run in the Megahertz.
“She was nominated to the (Grade III) Frankel Stakes (on Dec.
30) but she had something going on in her feet and she couldn’t make
it,” said Meza. “So we worked on that and got her ready for this.”
With the winner’s share of $60,600, A Jealous Woman increased her earnings to $443,856 and ran her record to 19-8-3-3.
Byrony, off at 9-1, kept to her task in the lane and bested In
the Stars by a head, but could never get fully on terms with the winner.
She paid $7.00 and $3.40.
“She ran good,” said Gomez. “I thought when I was covered (able
to sit mid-pack to the half mile pole) I would be able to get by them.
I could just never get by them.”
In the Stars set the pace to the half mile pole establishing
splits of 22.05 and 45.86, while the winner stopped the six furlong
timer in 1:09.30 and the seven furlong in 1:20.98.
“I didn’t want to be on the lead and I got the guy next to me
(Rafael Bejarano aboard 3-1 shot Lady Ten) smooching,” said the always
colorful Nakatani. “I couldn’t get my filly behind a horse so that
really just screwed up our whole plan. I was wanting to be three or
four lengths back at least, but like I said, the guy next to me’s
chirping. At the same time, she wasn’t disgraced running those
fractions.”
In the Stars paid $3.00 to show and finished 1 ¾ lengths in
front of Hard to Resist and Joe Talamo. Lady Ten was another neck back,
finishing fifth.