Segesta © Benoit Photo
Juddmonte homebred Segesta walked her beat smartly at Del Mar Sunday in capturing her first Grade I headliner in the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes.
The 4-year-old daughter of champion Ghostzapper was always forwardly placed by rider Flavien Prat, then when encouraged turning for home in the mile on turf accelerated smartly and drew off to a two and a quarter-length tally all on her own power. Her winning time was 1:35.60 and she returned $5.40 for $2 as the race favorite.
The triumph was the seventh in the last nine runnings of the Matriarch by Brown, the eastern-based conditioner who has had 22 stakes scores in the 12 Bing Crosby seasons of racing presented so far. It was Prat’s second tally in the headliner (he scored with Brown-trained Regal Glory in 2022) and the second for the Juddmont outfit (Viadera 2020, also trained by Brown).
Finishing second in the feature was Resolute Racing or Miller Racing’s In Our Time, who had three-quarters of a length on Nguyen and Tran’s Ag Bullet.
The winner picked up a first prize of $180,000 to push her career earnings to $1,190,275 for her fourth victory in her 11th start. All of her outings have come on turf.
FLAVIEN PRAT (Segesta, Winner) - “She was a bit on her toes. She was there for every step of the way today, Chad (Brown) thought she might be a Grade I winner. I don’t think the pace was crazy, and there were two horses in front, so I came out. She has a tendency of getting by those horses and kind of waiting. So I was trying to keep her up and keep her busy. She gave me a first class trip. She was there every step of the way.”
JOSE HERNANDEZ (Segesta, winner) – “She deserved to win this race. She’s been knocking on the door so many times. She trained so well here. A nice, nice filly. The first part (of the race) was a little quick but you can take her back and he (jockey Flavien Prat) got her in a good position. Chad (Brown) is really good with grass horses. All of his horses develop and are in good condition when they come in from far away, the east coast. Segesta showed up this time.”