Top California-based rider Flavien Prat made a cross-country trip for good reason.
Fresh off winning a Del Mar title as the summer meet's leading rider, Prat teamed up with French invader Edisa for a rallying, 3/4-length win in Saturday’s US$750,000 Jockey Club Oaks, the final leg of New York’s Turf Tiara series for 3-year-old fillies.
The final time was 2:17.02 for 1 3/8 miles after Prat guided Edisa, daughter of Kitten’s Joy trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, from the rail post position. Despite soft fractions, she was best in the end, running down the center of the track with an off-the-pace kick.
"She broke slow and I was on the inside," said Prat, who "wasn't really happy" with his early positioning.
But Edisa had plenty of class after bet down to 8-5 in the field of eight. Another European runner, Wonderment, rallied — but not quite fast enough to hold off Edisa — for second.
"Her main quality is a quick turn-of-foot and she was able to show it here today," Royer-Dupre said.
"It was a good effort," added Nicolas Clement, who trains Wonderment. "The two French fillies ran one-two, so you can't really ask for a better result than that traveling from Europe. They are both very nice fillies."
Dyna Passer, sibling of the well-known older turf runner Sadler's Joy, led domestic charges for trainer Tom Albertrani in third.
Romantic Pursuit got away with soft fractions, going in 25.10 for the quarter mile, 51.56 for the half and 1:42.57 for the mile before she faded to fourth.
Edisa returned $5.20 to win. The filly entered Saturday's race having finished in the exacta in four straight back home, including runner-ups in Group 2 and 3 competitions.
