Coy Coyote Beats Stablemate in Mazarine BC

Harlequin Ranches' Coy Coyote rallied from mid-pack to win Saturday's $250,000 Mazarine Breeders' Cup Stakes (Can-III) for 2-year-old fillies at Woodbine.

The bay daughter of Honour and Glory, dismissed at odds of 13-1, was ridden by Corey Fraser for trainer Reade Baker, who also saddled the second-place finisher, A.P. Reality, who led by 2 1/2 lengths in the stretch.

Ontario Debutante champion Stillistillmovin and slight favorite Changeisgonnacome slugged it out through brisk early fractions of :22.87 and :46.79, with Coy Coyote sitting in fifth, five lengths back.

After three-quarters in 1:12.87, the Kentucky-bred Coy Coyote, runner-up in the My Dear Stakes on July 2, began to close on the outside of A.P. Reality going on to a 1 1/2-length win.

A.P. Reality, who finished third in the Natalma (Can-III) Sept. 10, was a half-length in front of My List in a race run in 1:47.30 for 1 1/16 miles on Polytrack.

The Mazarine was the first trip around two turns for Coy Coyote, who won her maiden at 4 1/2 furlongs in her career bow on May 27 at the Toronto oval.

In her last start, over six furlongs on the Polytrack, she eked out a head win as the favourite. That came on the heels of her only disappointing performance, a tenth-place finish on the E.P. Taylor Turf Course Aug. 20, her only try on the grass to date.

"(A.P. Reality) blew away from me on the turn, and I thought it was a fight for second," said Fraser. "She hit a brick wall, and I saw it was open game."

The victory gave Baker his first Mazarine crown and his Woodbine-leading tenth stakes score of the year.

"She's very kind, she can do anything you want," said Baker, of Coy Coyote, a lifetime winner of three races from five starts. "Corey fits a horse like that, so it worked out perfectly."

Jockey Jim McAleney, regular rider of both A.P. Reality and Coy Coyote, thought he had the race won before his A.P. Reality ran greenly down the lane. "She's a lovely, lovely filly. She made a tremendous run and made the lead. It's just inexperience. She looked at the grandstand, she ducked out and pulled herself up, but she almost caught them again."

Coy Coyote returned $28.70, $11.40, and $5.30 and combined with A.P. Reality ($4.40, $3.10) for a $121.20 exacta. My List paid $4.40 to show.

Forbidden Image ran fourth, followed by Poetic Fan, Sprung, Changeisgonnacome, and Silky Smooth. Stillistillmovin tired on the far turn and did not finish.

(Chart, Equibase)