Kathleen Rose would not let her win streak end without a fight but Parranda landed the final punch to score a neck victory in the $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes (gr. IIT) June 28 at Santa Anita Park (VIDEO).
With the victory, Parranda added a third graded stakes win and fourth stakes victory to her splendid 2014 season while securing the first grade II win of her career. The 5-year-old daughter of English Channel now boasts six career stakes wins, all this season and last year.
In the Royal Heroine, Parranda broke from the outside post in the field of 10 turf females. With some nice handling by jockey Elvis Trujillo, Parranda eased over before the first turn to track early leader Kathleen Rose, who started from post nine.
Boasting three straight victories on the Santa Anita turf and five wins in her previous six starts, Kathleen Rose and Edwin Maldonado cruised through a quarter-mile in :23.72 but were engaged through a half-mile in :47.66 by Dutchessa and jockey Kent Desormeaux, who moved three wide. Those two continued their battle through the turn while Parranda inherited a nice tracking spot in third.
About three-quarters of the way through the far turn, Parranda launched her three-wide bid. She would briefly pass Kathleen Rose in the stretch but the 4-year-old Good Journey filly battled back for a narrow lead. Those two would battle into deep stretch with Parranda finally finding more in the final strides to secure the win.
Winning trainer Jerry Hollendorfer credited Trujillo with a big assist in the win.
"Elvis rode a real good race, real smart, and helped us to win the race," Hollendorfer said. "We wanted to try and get out of there (the gate) and be tactical."
Parranda completed the one-mile race on firm turf in 1:35.27. Runner-up Kathleen Rose, a homebred for B&B Zietz Stables, secured the first stakes-placing of her career; as did Ran Jan Racing homebred Moulin de Mougin, who finished third.
"Yeah, I'm happy with today. I was comfortable that she could finish strong," Trujillo said. "I knew I had a lot of speed and I was going to move at the five-eighths. Desormeaux's horse (Dutchessa) being up there with (Kathleen Rose) really helped us today. I sat off those two and then moved."
Sent off the 2-1 favorite, Parranda returned $6.20 to win, $3.60 to place, and $2.80 to show. Kathleen Rose returned $5 and $4 while Moulin de Mougin paid $6.60 to show.
After winning just one of five starts in her first season of racing in 2012, Parranda now boasts 10 wins in 24 starts and earnings of $668,655.