After a second-place finish in her debut, e Five Racing Thoroughbreds' New Money Honey stepped up in a big way Oct. 2 to break her maiden in the $200,000 Miss Grillo Stakes (gr. IIIT) at Belmont Park.
Video: Miss Grillo S. (G3T)
The 2-year-old daughter of Medaglia d'Oro stalked the early pace outside of favored Coasted in the 1 1/16-mile test, but both still had work to do turning for home behind frontrunners Joust and Rymska.
New Money Honey, under the guidance of jockey Javier Castellano, took the outside route and surged by the leaders, while Coasted encountered tight quarters on the rail and lacked the late kick that propelled her to a victory in the Sept. 1 P. G. Johnson Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.
In the clear on the outside, however, the Chad Brown-trained New Money Honey found another gear and pulled away to win by 2 3/4 lengths, ahead of Rymska. Another 1 1/2 lengths back came Coasted, who edged Create a Dream for third.
"She was in a good position today," Castellano said. "She found a good spot. She's so strong. You don't know what you have until you try. I liked the way she did it and I think Mr. Brown put her in the right position to succeed.
"She's going to be competitive. She showed today she has great skill and can compete with some of the best horses in the country."
In her debut Sept. 5 at Saratoga, New Money Honey finished four lengths behind La Coronel in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight event, but Brown saw enough from his filly during training to move her into stakes company.
"I thought she got a lot out of her first race," Brown said. "I think the horse that won her debut is quite a nice filly as well. It was her third start versus our filly's debut, and at Saratoga, it's a lot to ask a horse going two turns first time out. I thought for the most part she handled it well.
"She moved forward dramatically in her two breezes after her debut. ... She dragged me here with her last two workouts."
Joust set fractions of :25.99, :51.57, and 1:15.93 over the yielding Belmont inner turf course, but faded to finish fifth. New Money Honey took over to run a mile in 1:38.69 and hit the wire in 1:44.58.
New Money Honey was bred in Kentucky by WinStar Farm, out of the Distorted Humor mare Weekend Whim.
