Include Betty rallies to win Mother Goose Stakes

Coming from last place in the 10-horse field, Include Betty, with jockey Drayden Van Dyke riding, swung wide out of the final turn, charged down the stretch and, at the wire, scored a 3-1/4 length win in the $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park on Saturday, June 27, 2015

Include Betty, with jockey Drayden Van Dyke, went from last-to-first to score a victory in the $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday, June 27, 2015. (Photo by Coglianese Photos)

For the 3-year-old filly, who is owned by Gov. Brereton Jones and Timothy Thornton, it was her second graded stakes victory in 2015. She also won the Fantasy Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park on April 4, 2015.

Include Betty finished the 1-1/16th-mile race for 3-year-old fillies on a dirt track rated fast in 1:44.68.

"It was a perfect trip," said Van Dyke. "I knew they were going fast up front and I knew this long stretch should really help her out, she makes that nice last run and I knew it'd work out just perfect for her. I just had to make sure that I kept pulling my goggles down (because of the rain) so I could see where I was going.

"I don't think she'll have any problems stretching out further. Me and (winning trainer) Tom [Proctor] were saying she's a filly that really doesn't like to be hit a whole lot, so it's more just getting along with her and keeping her happy."

For Van Dyke, it was his first Grade 1 stakes win at Belmont.

In the race, Include Betty broke from the gate, and then saved ground at the back of the 10-horse field through most of the race.

Meanwhile, Hot City Girl led the field, setting fractions of 22.66 and 45.50 early, with Embellish the Lace in second,

Heading into the far turn, Van Dyke began to angle Include Betty out four-wide as he tried to get his filly to move up toward the front.

As they headed out of the far turn and into the stretch, Include Betty moved out five wide and began to power towards the front.

Behind her, Wonder Gal was also moving towards the front, but by this point was still behind Include Betty, who had taken the lead near the final furlong marker.

At the wire, Include Betty had the win by 3-1/4 lengths, with Wonder Gal getting her nose across the wire in second by a nose over Chide, who finished third.

Wonder Gal's trainer, Leah Gyarmati, was pleased with her horse's gutsy second-place finish.

"I thought she ran well," said Gyarmati. "For a minute there in the stretch, it looked like we may be nowhere. She really showed a lot of guts running it out for second."

Rounding out the field, Pleasant Tales was fourth, followed by Hot City Girl, Eskenformoney, Danessa Deluxe, Money'soncharlotte, Embellish the Lace and Munasara.

With the win, Include Betty, who is by Include-Betty's Solutions, by Eltish, now has four wins, two seconds, 1 third and $543,030 in earnings in 10 career starts.

The filly was also bred by Gov. Jones, along with Lavin Bloodstock.

For Gov. Jones, owner of Airdrie Stud in Midway, Ky., it was another great win in 2015. Among his other horses, his 3-year-old filly Lovely Maria, who is trained by Larry Jones, won the Kentucky Oaks on May 1 at Churchill Downs.

(Information gathered from EquiBase.com, NYRA.com, BloodHorse.com, HorseRacingNation.com, and PedigreeQuery.com.)