Pair of fillies celebrate upcoming birthdays with 2nd straight victories

Two Pleasant Acres products, both 4-year-old fillies, made it two victories in a row yesterday to beat their 5-year-old birthdays by three days. Indy Princess Koko (Amira’s Prince) scored at Mahoning Valley and Take to the Skies (Handsome Mike) did likewise at Tampa Bay Downs.

Indy Princess Koko was ridden by Erik Barbaran, and she was off last in a field of eight racing 5 1/2 furlongs. She was still 10 lengths behind the pace-setters coming to the turn, where she dug in and uncorked a monster wide run similar to the one she had made in her previous victory just 16 days before. Like that race, Indy Princess Koko inhaled the leaders late, going on to win by a length in 1:07.48, and earning a check for $8,940. Her fourth victory of 2021 was worth $28 to her backers, and she raised her earnings to $36,268.

Take to the Skies sat closer to the pace going a mile on the turf with Wilmer Garcia, and she slipped through on the inside coming to the final turn. Garcia swung her into the three path in the stretch and she proved best in the run to the wire by one length. She collected a check for $10,600 and increased her total to $31,855 on a record of 2-2-1 in eight starts; she’s been in the top four in seven of the eight.

Handsome Mike is listed at 14th on Florida’s leading sire list with earnings of more than $1.1 million, but five of those ahead of him have died, retired or gone elsewhere, leaving him ninth among active sires.