John Hillier’s Acting Naughty rallied to earn her first stakes win, holding off Starship Universe in a photo finish, to take Sunday’s Grade 3, $152,200 Whimsical Stakes, at Woodbine.
Acting Naughty, a four-year-old daughter of Offlee Wild bred in Ontario by William D. Graham, raced from off-the-pace in the early going as Distracting led the field through sharp splits of :22.13 and :44.99 with Man Stuff on her tail.
Tyler Pizarro urged Acting Naughty into contention through the turn as Starship Universe, under Jesse Campbell, looked for racing room along the rail.
Acting Naughty surged past Distracting mid-stretch, as Starship Universe angled off the rail and the duo dueled to the wire with Acting Naughty prevailing by a head, in 1:09.76. Katie Get Excited closed to earn show money over Northern Passion.
Pizarro was pleased to sit off the early pace duel in the six furlong ‘Poly’ tilt.
“On paper, it looked like it was going to set up that way,” said Pizarro. “My main concern was making sure she breaks good. She’s usually a quirky filly and kind of hops out of there, but today she was on her game.”
Pizarro was a little surprised his filly, who entered the race off a smart bullet breeze covering five furlongs in 1:00.40, didn’t take a little more action on the tote board.
“I know her very well from working her in the mornings and riding her all last year,” said Pizarro. “I had full confidence in her today and I can’t believe she was 14-1.”
Trained by Donald MacRae, Acting Naughty’s previous best stakes result was a second-place finish to Blue Heart in the Jammed Lovely, in November.
“She’s a model of consistency. Every time we lead her over, she runs well,” said MacRae. “I did think she was a bit outclassed today, but she’s improved from (age) three to four. Today was a lot of fun.”
Acting Naughty banked $90,000 in victory, while improving her record to 6-6-1 from 16 career starts.
She returned $31.30, $13.90 and $6.80, pairing with Starship Universe ($47.70, $15.70) for a $673.40 (7-1) exactor. A 7-1-5 (Katie Get Excited, $7 to show) triactor was worth $3648.15. Northern Passion completed a $1 superfecta (7-1-5-3) worth $11,143.80.
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