Zanim R. Meahjohn's 13-1 chance Rusty Slipper seized the lead nearing the sixteenth pole and comfortably earned her first graded stakes win in the $109,000 Violet Stakes (gr. IIIT) Aug. 23 at Monmouth Park (VIDEO).
Overheard, the 8-5 favorite, stormed through the stretch from well off the pace to take second, 1 1/4 lengths behind the winner. Rusty Slipper prevailed in a final time of 1:49.07 in the 1 1/8-mile turf contest over good going while making her second start of a comeback and first at the distance.
With Alex Cintron riding for trainer Graham Motion, Rusty Slipper pressed pacesetter Why Katherine to early stretch then kicked away past the eighth pole. Overheard, ninth of 10 older fillies and mares at the three-eighths mark, was angled wide entering the lane and launched a torrid rally but could not get to the winner.
"She took a good position early in the race," Cintron said of Rusty Slipper, a half sister to the dam of Wicked Strong , who 15 minutes earlier at Saratoga Race Course was the close runner-up in the Travers Stakes (gr. I). "She finished good. I had a lot of horse and when I called on her and she took off."
After tracking from fifth early, Fasnacloich finished well between horses in the stretch to take third, a neck behind Overheard.
A 4-year-old filly by Lemon Drop Kid , Rusty Slipper won for the fourth time in seven career starts. She came into the Violet after finishing fourth in the June 21 Eatontown Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Monmouth. The Eatontown marked her first start in more than a year following her win in the Little Silver Stakes May 27, 2013 at the New Jersey oval.
Bred in Kentucky by Woodford Thoroughbreds, Rusty Slipper is out of the stakes-placed With Approval mare Classic Approval, who also is the dam of two-time grade III winner Gulch Approval; Canadian stakes winner Approval Rating, who is grade III-placed; multiple graded stakes-placed Highest Classic, and winner Moyne Abbey, the dam of Twinspires.com Wood Memorial Stakes (gr. I) victor Wicked Strong.
Rusty Slipper returned $29.60, $10, and $6.40, while Overheard brought $4 and $2.80. Fasnacloich was worth $9.20 to show.
Why Katherine held on for fourth, followed by Starstruck, Silsita, Scampering, Lady Aspen, Triple Arch, and Primed for Passion.
