Unraced since November, last year's King's Plate winner and Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Caitlinhergrtness (Omaha Beach) returned in great style to Woodbine Saturday, winning the GIII Belle Mahone Stakes to open her 2025 season.
Having beaten the boys in the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, the filly, named for WNBA player Caitlin Clark, returned to facing her own gender Saturday having been third behind She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) in the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes at Keeneland and fourth in the GIII Maple Leaf to finish out her 2024 campaign.
Well rested off the six-month layoff and smoothly handled along the inside with a smooth beginning, Caitlinhergrtness settled a cozy third around the clubhouse turn as Dana's Beauty (Not This Time) dueled outside of For Flying (Brz) (Drosselmeyer) for command up front. Racing a solo third for much of the backstretch run, she was patiently handled even as the field began to swarm around her past the half-mile pole. Just awaiting her cue, the 2-1 race favorite got cut loose between horses with a quarter-mile left to run and, once in the clear, she ran up the score with a strong performance over For Flying who best Ready for Shirl (More Than Ready) in a three-way photo finish for the minor placings.
“I was just trying to get her to relax,” said winning rider Rafael Hernandez. “She's been working really hard, and I just want to get her back on her feet and relax good. And I know when she is able to do that, when I put her in the clear, she's going to explode like she did today. She's been working amazing, and everything paid off today.”
Trainer Kevin Attard added: “I was a little more nervous with her, just because she had been working so fast, and we were making a conscious effort trying to slow her down in the mornings. She came into us early in the year from WinStar, just looking like a different animal. She matured so much, she filled out, she grew and, you know, it all transpired onto the racetrack.”
Pedigree Note:
One of 17 stakes winners and the 5th individual graded stakes winner for Omaha Beach, Caitlinhergrtness is out of a Giant's Causeway first dam with a perfect three for three record of runners to winners to her name. As a broodmare sire, Giant's Causeway needs no introduction, siring the dams of champions like Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}). Belatrix, who passed through the KEENOV ring on a final bid of $11,000 in 2023 before her daughter came to 'greatness', is a half-sister to MSW/GISP Dogtag (War Front) and to the dam of Australian MGSW/MG1SP Osipenko (NZ) (Pierro {Aus}). This is also the family of European champion 2-year-old colt and successful sire Shamardal (Giant's Causeway). Caitlinhergrtness has just one younger sibling-a 3-year-old Midnight Lute half-brother named Sovereign Star who is unraced. Belatrix was reported as served by Loggins for 2025 but has not produced a foal since 2022 despite visits to Cloud Computing for 2023 and Greatest Honour for 2024.
She's baaaaack!
Not to be outdone by Mystik Dan, #2 CAITLINHERGRTNESS – the 2024 King's Plate winner – made her 2025 debut a winning one in the $150,000 Belle Mahone Stakes (G3). The daughter of @spendthriftfarm Omaha Beach was ridden by Rafael Hernandez for @kevin_attard. pic.twitter.com/411Z5os6yt
— FanDuel Racing (@FanDuel_Racing) May 31, 2025
Saturday, Woodbine
BELLE MAHONE S.-GIII, C$169,200, Woodbine, 5-31, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16m (AWT), 1:42.26, ft.
1–CAITLINHERGRTNESS, 121, f, 4, by Omaha Beach
1st Dam: Belatrix, by Giant's Causeway
2nd Dam: Diamond Necklace, by Unbridled's Song
3rd Dam: Helsinki (GB), by Machiavellian
1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($65,000 Wlg '21 KEENOV;
$160,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP; $375,000 2yo '23 OBSAPR).
O-WinStar Farm LLC; B-Jesse Korona (ON); T-Kevin Attard;
J-Rafael Manuel Hernandez. C$108,000. Lifetime Record:
Ch. 3-year-old filly-Can, GISP, 10-4-1-2, $772,414. Werk Nick
Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–For Flying (Brz), 119, m, 5, Drosselmeyer–Table Mountain
(Brz), by Elusive Quality. O-Newstead Stables LLC; B-Haras Old
Friends Ltda (BRZ); T-H. Graham Motion. C$30,000.
3–Ready for Shirl, 119, f, 4, More Than Ready–Perfect Shirl,
by Perfect Soul (Ire). 1ST BLACK TYPE, 1ST GRADED BLACK
TYPE. O/B-Charles Fipke (KY); T-Roger L. Attfield. C$15,000.
Margins: 5, NK, HD. Odds: 2.15, 11.00, 14.55.
Also Ran: Literate, Fashionably Fab, Dana's Beauty, Fortyfiveseventy, Kin's Concerto. Scratched: Freedom Speaks. Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
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