It was another stakes winner from LEA’s biggest and best-bred crop on Thursday when Poppy Flower flew home late to win the Listed Galway Stakes.
Placed in both her previous Saratoga stakes runs, Poppy Flower was looking to avenge her half-length loss to Empress Tigress in last month’s Listed Coronation Cup and did so with a flourish in the Galway.
Breaking from the inside hole, she dropped back to race with just one horse beat early in the 5 ½ furlong race on the turf. Jose Ortiz kept her tucked on the rail down the backstretch and that proved to be the right move with the filly flying down the inside into the turn before switching outside.
Given clear running room with no one to stop her, Poppy Flower showed a big kick to chase down the leaders in the final furlong. Confident he had the race won, Ortiz put the whip away when they reached the dueling leader’s shoulder and Poppy Flower ran right on by for a one length win.
The Galway Stakes was the fifth stakes top three finish for the Bill Mott trainee and second stakes victory after a Listed Stormy Blues Stakes win in June.
The earner of $340,520 for Arnmore Thoroughbreds, she was bred by Brenda Harding and Megan Jones in Kentucky out of the stakes-placed Excellent Art mare Nisharora. That mare is a granddaughter of Group 1 Prix de Diane winner Lypharita.