On Saturday, the Belmont Stakes card offered numerous prestigious races, including the Acorn Stakes for three-year-old fillies. Because Echo Zulu didn’t make an appearance, in the end, it was Matareya who triumphed here comfortably in front of Divine Huntress. After this performance in a race won by such champions as Gamine, Abel Tasman, or Monomoy Girl, Matareya has completed a victorious hattrick at the Graded scene and suggested she could belong among the absolute best three-year-old fillies of the 2022 season, here’s the Acorn Stakes Recap.
Acorn Stakes
After hot favorite Echo Zulu scratched right before this mile-long race for three-year-old fillies, Matareya (30-100) became the leading chance and effortlessly scored her premiere G1 dirt victory.
The purse of $500,000 lured in just three other rivals, among which Matareya caught the eye due to her recent performances at the Graded stage, while on Saturday, she had a great start, made all, and in the final stretch, she scooted away from remaining contestants. Under Flavien Prat, the bay won by six and ¼ of a length in 1m 35.77s, with Divine Huntress (66-10) coming home in second. Dream Lith (104-10) was third.
Besides taking fifth in the last year’s G1 Alcibiades Stakes, the Brad Cox bound bay has never finished worse than second; moreover, she’s unbeaten in 2022.
The daughter of Pioneer of The Nile commenced the season with a win in an Allowance race, upon which she aimed at the Graded competition, where she started to shine immediately. After bagging a G3 event, Matareya secured a win in the G2 Eight Belles Stakes, while on Saturday, she proved to handle the distance of a mile with ease.
Such a performance was highly promising, and we’re eager to see more of this talented filly. Divine Huntress tracked the leader from the beginning; however, once she was asked to keep pace with Matareya, she just wasn’t capable of that and remained second.
Still, she delivered her career-best effort here. Dream Lith gave a sort of a finish in the final stretch but never really challenged the first and second filly while Inventing (67-20) was quite disappointing on Saturday. Sitting behind the leader, she was expected to at least close on them gradually, but instead of that, she weakened and utterly lost touch with the rest of the field.
Champion two-year-old filly, fourth in the Kentucky Oaks last time out, Echo Zulu, didn’t make it into the race as jockey Joel Rosario spotted something was off with his mount. The veterinarian confirmed later on that the filly was lame.
Acorn Stakes Recap Video
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