Saturday, October 18, 2008

JOHNSON DIVISIONS TO CANADIAN BALLET, COCKTAIL ATTIRE

East Rutherford, NJ [Oct. 18, 2008] - Canadian Ballet glided to an easy victory in the first of two $60,000 P.G. Johnson splits for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday night at the Meadowlands.

With Cornelio Velasquez aboard, Canadian Ballet [$6.20, $3.20, $2.60] drew off to a four-length victory over Kosmo's Buddy [$3.04, $2.40] and Big Easy [$4.20]. She stepped the five furlongs in 55.89 over a firm turf course.

Trained by Linda Rice, Canadian Ballet has won four of 11 career starts and $235,889. The Obviously NY Stable owns the daughter of City Zip-Canadian Flagship [Northern Flagship].


"Cornelio had ridden this filly before and he had seen the race at Philadelphia Park and it just went poorly for her from gate to wire," Rice noted of the filly's eighth-place finish in the Turf Amazon Handicap at Philadelphia Park. "Cornelio did a nice job tonight. I really don't know where we'll go from here. I think we'll give her a breather over the winter. I think she's a really nice filly and we'll have a great year with her next year, so we may plan a small vacation for her. I think we'll keep her sprinting on the turf. I think that's probably good for her."

Cocktail Attire, the only maiden in the field, got up in the final strides to take the second P.G. Johnson division by a head over Libor Lady in 56.04. Rajiv Maragh was in the irons. It was three-quarters of a length back to Lost Without You in third.

"It kind of worked out good for me because two horses went and dueled," Maragh said. "I had a good rail position on them so I wasn't losing too much ground. I got out when it was really time to go. We were kind of looking for the lead, but in these five-eighths turf races other people are too. She got a bit out-footed, so I had to settle for second position and it worked out good for me."

Michael Trombetta trains Cocktail Attire for Three Diamonds Farm. The grey filly is a daughter of Distorted Humor out of the El Prado mare Seventh Choice.

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