OAKLAWN: FAVORITE A MO REAY WINS SATURDAY’S GRADE 3 BAYAKOA STAKES

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

Photo credit: Coady Photography

FAVORITE A MO REAY WINS SATURDAY’S GRADE 3 BAYAKOA STAKES

HOT SPRINGS, AR (Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023) – Hunter Valley Farm’s A Mo Reay benefitted from all the pressure put on pace setter Lovely Ride early in the race and swept to the lead late to win Saturday’s $250,000 Bayakoa Stakes (G3) before an on-track crowd of 21,000.

Ridden patiently by Florent Geroux, A Mo Reay was fifth early as Lovely Ride, looking for her third straight stakes victory, bounced to the lead and set fractions of :24 1/5 and :48 for the first half mile while heavily pressured by Graysonsmacho Gal. Lovely Ride shook free around the turn for home and opened up a two-length lead before a fast closing A Mo Reay caught her in the final furlongs to prevail by a half-length in 1:45 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast track. Le Da Vida (CHI) was third.

A Mo Reay, a 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly trained by Brad Cox, improved her record to 4-1-3 in 11 starts and has now earned $392,650. She paid $6.20, $4 and $3 as the 2-1 favorite.

Live racing resumes Sunday with a first post of 12:30 p.m.

Stakes Quotes:

Winning jockey Florent Geroux: “It’s funny, I was looking at the race and I think I had ridden four of them before and won on them, so I knew the field very well. It worked out great. I think the trip really helped. I was able to stay inside all the way; crept up a little bit on the backside. At the three-eighths pole, I ended up right behind the runner-up (Lovely Ride). All I had to do was run her down, pass one horse. Very good filly. It was a nice battle all the way down the lane. But the last sixteenth of a mile, my filly made up the difference.”

Winning trainer Brad Cox: “She got a good trip. Florent (Geroux), obviously, slipped up the inside and saved some ground. Ultimately, who knows? But it may have made the difference in winning and losing. Obviously, the runner-up (Lovely Ride) was very, very hard to get past.”

Second-place jockey Cristian Torres, Lovely Ride: “The No. 1 filly (A Mo Reay), she got the perfect setup. The 5 (Graysonsmacho Gal), John Ortiz’s filly, went head-to-head with me, but my filly proved she can handle pressure. She’s still a nice filly. She gave me everything she had down the lane. She tried until the wire.”

Second-place trainer Robertino Diodoro, Lovely Ride: “Any time you’ve got a speed horse in the race and another guy’s got two (trainer John Ortiz), it’s a part of the game. I knew that was the play the last time – they were going to try to kill us with one of the (Ortiz horses). It didn’t work. Just took enough starch out of her today.”