Blue Mistress wins on Tampa Bay green

Handsome Mike’s 15th winner of the season is Blue Mistress, a 3-year-old filly bred by Joe and Helen Barbazon who turned in a wire-to-wire maiden-breaker racing a flat mile on the grass at Tampa Bay Downs yesterday.

Harry Hernandez shot Blue Mistress out of the gate quickly and she was never in real danger of losing the lead, turning away two rivals at the head of the stretch and drawing off to score by nearly four lengths in 1:36.73. She paid $4 as favorite.

Handsome Mike leads Florida’s third-crop sires on both the progeny earnings and winners’ lists.