Dazzling Dame impresses in $150K Busanda romp

Respect the Valleys' Dazzling Dame made easy work of four rivals and drew off to an emphatic 11 1/2-length victory in Saturday’s $150,000 Busanda, a one-turn mile for sophomore fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack. The Busanda, previously contested at nine furlongs, offered 20-10-6-4-2 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top-five finishers, respectively.

Trained by Brittany Russell, the daughter of Girvin entered from a 1 1/2-length victory in Delaware Park’s two-turn mile White Clay Creek on October 11 two starts after notching her first stakes win in Monmouth Park’s Sorority in August. Those efforts surrounded a fourth in the one-turn mile Grade 3 Pocahontas in September at Churchill Downs where she earned two Kentucky Oaks points in the event won by Taken by the Wind.

Russell, who is based in Maryland, said Dazzling Dame was more comfortable shipping to the Big A than she was going to Louisville for the Pocahontas.

"At Churchill when she ran, I feel like she never settled in and did things how you'd like to,” Russell said. “It's a different story - two turns coming out of the Delaware race, it's a long run down the backside - and for a free-running horse like that, I just wasn't sure how she would handle it. She was great [today]. Today was much better. It's a little closer than Kentucky."

In the Busanda, Dazzling Dame broke outwardly from post 4-of-5 under Jevian Toledo, but recovered quickly to set the pace with post-time favorite Believable tracking closely to her outside through the opening quarter-mile in 23.55 seconds over the fast footing.

"To be honest, she always breaks forward,” said Toledo, who last piloted the filly in the two-turn mile Sorority. “She likes to be right there. I was a little bit worried because no one held on, the entire day, on the lead. But she is a nice filly, she proved she belongs in these kinds of races. Everything worked out good.”

A trio of rivals tracked behind the top pair down the backstretch with Dazzling Dame showing the way before putting some separation between her and Believable approaching the turn. The half-mile elapsed in 47.20 and the Jaime Rodriguez-piloted Two Bits came under a strong ride to pass Believable in the three-path and set her sights on the freewheeling Dazzling Dame in the turn.

“I got the outside horse [Believable] kind of putting pressure a little bit,” Toledo said. “As soon as we came in the turn, I kind of opened up on them and my filly relaxed a little bit. I think that was the key."

The race was nearly wrapped up heading into the stretch as Dazzling Dame widened the gap between her and Two Bits to seven lengths, reaching three-quarters in 1:12.75. She increased her margin with every stride to win wrapped up in a final time of 1:38.30, more than 3/5 of a second faster than sophomore colt My World ran when winning the one-mile $150,000 Jerome earlier on the Big A card [1:38.96].

Two Bits completed the exacta by 11 1/4 lengths over Believable. Midnite Ginny and Britain rounded out the order of finish while morning line favorite Shilling was scratched due to a small nick on her leg that was enflamed, per trainer Ken McPeek.

Russell, who finished second in the aforementioned Jerome with Balboa, said Dazzling Dame is naturally talented. 

"That was really nice. She's a really good workhorse in the mornings,” Russell said. “I know it just looks like 49s down the page, but she just does things really easy. She seems like she's progressed, and big, nice filly, does things right. Hopefully, keep her healthy.”

Future East Coast stops on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks include the nine-furlong Grade 3 Gazelle [100-50-25-15-10 points] on April 4 here or the 1 1/16-mile Virginia Oaks [50-25-15-10-5 points] on March 14 at Colonial Downs. Either race would be the farthest of Dazzling Dame’s career, and Russell said more distance is a logical next step. 

"I think we'd be silly not to try,” Russell said. “There's also the Colonial way to it. It might be interesting for us from where we are. We'll keep all options on the table."

Rodriguez, aboard the Amelia Green-trained Two Bits, said his filly likely would have benefitted from a swifter tempo.

"She ran good. I thought there was going to be a little more pace,” Rodriguez said. “The winner, she went by herself a little bit at the beginning. Really, nobody put that much pressure on her. I had to move my horse a little bit earlier than I wanted to, but she made a huge run. She made a beautiful improvement. Everybody is happy. That's the thing that matters."

Bred in Maryland by Maria M. Haire, Dazzling Dame was a $45,000 purchase at the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale and is out of the multiple stakes-placed Corinthian mare Awesome Dama. She banked $82,500 in victory while improving her lifetime record to 5-4-0-0 and returning $6.24 on a $2 win ticket. 

Live racing resumes Sunday at Aqueduct Racetrack with an eight-race card. First post is 12:40 p.m. Eastern. 

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