After knocking on the door several times, Mokat finally earned her first graded tally while providing an answer to the question of “But who has she beaten?” that sometimes accompanies discussions involving Sunday's GI Coaching Club American Oaks favorite Songbird (Medaglia d'Oro). Fifth in a main-track sprint here last September, Mokat earned her diploma by 5 1/2 emphatic lengths over course and distance Oct. 31. She finished second by a half-length in the GIII Jimmy Durante S. a month later, but was fourth as the favorite after showing the way early in a one-mile dirt optional claimer in Arcadia Jan. 8. Third behind Mirage (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) back on the grass Feb. 5, she was third at 42-1 behind Songbird and subsequent GII Fair Grounds Oaks winner Land Over Sea (Bellamy Road) in the GIII Santa Ysabel S. Mar. 5, and went one better behind the champion juvenile filly in the Apr. 9 GI Santa Anita Oaks–“just” 3 3/4 lengths back. While Songbird was forced to miss the GI Kentucky Oaks with a fever, Mokat did not, but she finished a far-back second last and hadn't been seen since.
Directed to a ground-saving position on the rail as Belvoir Bay (GB) (Equiano {Fr}) showed the way through splits of : 23.14 and :47.06, Mokat was on the move shortly thereafter. She steadily improved up the fence on the far turn and burst through a gap one off the rail turning into the stretch. The Richard Baltas trainee was not for catching down the lane, and ran away and hid from there.
“She was full of run,” offered winning pilot Kent Desormeaux. “Richie said the one thing he wanted me to do was to get her to relax. Down the backside, she was as cool as the cucumber. Then the speed backed up into us and I peeled her out. She did it all on her own. She was good. How good is she? [Baltas] thought enough of her to run her against Songbird. That tells you something about [Mokat]. And what does this race tell you about Songbird?”
“I thought she might be a little bit short,” Baltas revealed. “We gave her a rest after the Kentucky Oaks aiming for this race and she breezed very well on the turf here [July 12]. She's just a different horse on the turf. I said, 'I hope we have her fit enough' and she was. The [Aug. 20 GI] Del Mar Oaks is next.”
Saturday, Del Mar
SAN CLEMENTE H.-GII, $201,725, DMR, 7-23, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:35.23, fm.
1–#@MOKAT, 120, f, 3, by Uncle Mo
1st Dam: Flashy Frolic, by Premiership
2nd Dam: Cherokyfrolicflash, by Green Dancer
3rd Dam: Cherokee Frolic, by Cherokee Fellow
($52,000 RNA Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-J K Racing Stable; B-Charles S
Giles (KY); T-Richard Baltas; J-Kent J. Desormeaux. $120,000.
Lifetime Record: GISP, 9-2-2-2, $285,040. *1/2 to Frolicing
(Royal Academy), SW & GSP, $106,715; Frolic's Dream (Smoke
Glacken), GSW, $294,094. Werk Nick Rating: First SW from
cross. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.[bullet ad=”kbif-g2g3″]2–Lady Valeur (Ire), 117, f, 3, Multiplex (GB)–Hawk Eyed Lady
(Ire), by Hawk Wing. (€1,600 RNA 2yo '15 GORJUL). O-Eclipse
Thoroughbred Partners; B-Edmond Kent (IRE); T-Patrick
Gallagher. $40,000.
3–Stays in Vegas, 122, f, 3, City Zip–Double Jackpot, by Broken
Vow. ($40,000 Ylg '14 KEESEP). O-Jungle Racing LLC, KMN
Racing LLC & LNJ Foxwoods; B-John McCormack (KY); T-Jerry
Hollendorfer. $24,000.
Margins: 3 3/4, 3/4, 1 1/4. Odds: 7.20, 10.70, 3.20.[bullet ad=”carabloodstock-graduate”]Also Ran: Be Mine, Jade Princess, Corps de Ballet, Gone to Bali, Mirage (Ire), Princess Princess, Belvoir Bay (GB). Scratched: Sweet Queen. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
Pedigree Notes
It's awful rare these days for a big day of racing to go by without a new standout winner for second-crop sensation Uncle Mo, and Saturday was no exception. The Coolmore inmate was represented by his 15th stakes winner in the form of GIII Jersey Shore S. scorer Front Pocket Money, and his 2-year-old filly Auntjenn zipped away to a 6 1/2-length graduation early on the Del Mar card. Mokat's speedy Grade II-winning half-sister Frolic's Dream is responsible for Bode's Dream (Bodemeister), a $300,000 KEESEP yearling and $340,000 OBS March RNA who provided her freshman sire with his first win and then first stakes in Belmont's Astoria S. last month. Frolic's Dream's yearling colt by Violence recently sold for $335,000 at Fasig-Tipton July. Mokat has an unraced 2-year-old half-sister named Thirsty Lady (Stay Thirsty), a yearling half-brother by Union Rags who brought $87,000 at Keeneland January, and a recently foaled half-sister by Verrazano. Her dam is a half to MGSW $1.5-million earner Smok 'n Frolic (Smoke Glacken)–a graded stakes-winning producer herself–and her third dam is MGSW Cherokee Frolic, the dam or granddam of several other graded winners with 'Frolic' in their names.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
