By Brian DiDonato
Sunday's Matriarch S. is the last opportunity for female turfers to compete at the Grade I level in 2016, and a formidable five-horse contingent of East Coast-based runners have descended on Del Mar for the occasion. Miss Temple City (Temple City) drew the outside 11 post, but has the benefit of a breeze over the strip. This year's GI Maker's 46 Mile and GI Shadwell Turf Mile heroine was most recently fifth against the boys again in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile Nov. 5. Kept in California after that, the 4-year-old had a five-furlong spin here in 1:02.40 (1/4) with the dogs up Nov. 26. Her trainer Graham Motion took both the GII Seabiscuit H. and GIII Jimmy Durante S. last weekend, and was also a close second in the GIII Red Carpet H.
Phillips Racing Partnership's sophomore homebred Time and Motion (Tapit)'s lone 2016 blemish, if you can call it that, was a runner-up finish to Catch a Glimpse (City Zip) in the GI Belmont Oaks July 9. She turned the tables on that foe in the GII Lake Placid S. at the Spa Aug. 21, and added Keeneland's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. Oct. 15.
“I think she likes being a California girl,” said Tiffany Webb, assistant to trainer James Toner and the person in charge of the daughter of Tapit bred and owned by the Phillips Racing Partnership. “She just walked Tuesday and she's been galloping ever since and she's doing very well.”
It wouldn't be a Grade I on the grass without the presence of at least one Chad Brown representative, and this race has three. Lightly raced Roca Rojo (Ire) (Strategic Prince {GB}) impressed in her first Stateside start at Belmont June 30, but finished fourth with a crowded trip in a salty running of Saratoga's De La Rose S. Aug. 6. She bounced back back downstate in a Sept. 15 optional claimer, and dominated the GIII Athenia S. over soft sod Oct. 23. Zindaya (More Than Ready), one spot ahead of her stablemate in the De La Rose, was second behind another Brown pupil in Mrs McDougal (Medaglia d'Oro) in the Sept. 24 GIII Noble Damsel S. She shipped out to Santa Anita to best Tiz a Kiss (Cee's Tizzy) in the GII Goldikova S. Nov. 6. Juddmonte homebred Mexican Gold (Medaglia d'Oro), a Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed in France, annexed a Saratoga optional claimer on seasonal and U.S. debut Sept. 4 before checking in third in the Athenia.
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