Saturday’s $125,000 My Dear S. at Woodbine turned out to be a match race between a pair of Tall Oaks homebred fillies, with Collecting Flatter getting the better of Speedy River by 1 ½-lengths after a spirited battle.
Collecting Flatter, trained by Josie Carroll, led early in the 5 ½-furlong race, with Speedy River never more than a length behind at any point. After a half-mile in :46.73, Collecting Flatter had a narrow lead as they straightened for home. Speedy River appeared to the get lead briefly in upper stretch, but Collecting Flatter fought back gamely as she crossed the wire in 1:05.22 on the synthetic surface.
“My dad has come to the races for the first time since Covid and I think he was the good luck charm here today,” said Colleen Dalos, General Manager of Dalos’ Tall Oaks Farm. “We usually don’t like to race against ourselves, but we had no choice but to put them in since we have so many beautiful two-year-olds.
“We cheer for them equally and we gave them the same instructions, it was fabulous to see them dueling it out, but truthfully in the end we own the mare Recollect (dam of Collecting Flatter) and we’re always trying to improve on the percentages for our mares, so I had a slight edge, but just so happy to have them one-two.”
Collecting Flatter, who is two-for-two and has earned $91,092, won her June 25 debut by a similar margin.
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