After running second in four straight races, Arles found her way back to the winner's circle when she took the lead going into the first turn and never looked back in the Nov. 4 $200,000 Long Island Handicap (G3T).
"I was very confident with her through the whole trip," winning rider Nik Juarez said. "I talked to Graham (Motion, the trainer) this morning and he was saying she was fresh off a layoff and hopefully she would show her class. Today, she did just that. It was a perfect trip.
"It felt like she was going kind of quick that last half (mile), but I got her to settle back in my hands pretty easily. When it came to the stretch, she was real game."
In the 1 1/2-mile turf event for fillies and mares at Aqueduct Racetrack, Team Valor and Green Lantern Stables' Monsun mare broke well and assumed the lead, while racing inside near the rail. Arles took the six-horse field through splits of :24.85, :49.85, and 1:14.86 through six furlongs as Summersault tracked in second. With a mile in 1:40.39, Arles maintained a one-length advantage.
Coming into the stretch off the final turn, Arles floated wide as a closing Galileo's Song and Texting attempted to catch the leader. Arles inched away and hit the wire 1 3/4 lengths in front of Galileo's Song. It was another length back to Texting in third. The final time was 2:28.65 over the firm turf.
Summersault was fourth with Achnaha and Playful Sound completing the order of finish.
Off as the even-money favorite, Arles returned $4, $2.40, and $2.10 across the board.
The mare began her racing career in Europe, where she earned a group 2 placing as a 3-year-old and won a listed stakes race at 4 in Germany. Her first start in the U.S. was the Glen Falls Stakes (G3T) in September of 2016, where she finished second by three-quarters of a length to Suffused. She was then nosed out for a win in the Red Carpet Stakes (G3T) at Del Mar two months later, and she began 2017 with another close second to Suffused in the La Prevoyante Handicap (G3T) at Gulfstream Park.
Bred by S.A.R.L. Ecurie D in France, out of the Danehill mare Attachee de Presse, Arles now has a 3-7-2 record from 13 starts with earnings of $279,640.
