“She got a little tired late, but she knows what to do,” Jockey Ramon Vazquez said of And Tell Me Nolies. He has been aboard the filly in every one of her four career starts, “She is getting better and better after every race. She can handle the distance. I think she is going to be a superstar later.”
After echoing her Del Mar Debutante stumble at the break in Saturday’s race, And Tell Me Nolies raced comfortably in fifth down the backstretch with one horse beat past the half-mile in :46.71. The pace set by longshot Naughty Lottie and Del Mar Debutante third-place finisher Ice Dancing then began to subside as the pacesetters gave away around the far turn after six furlongs in 1:11.45.
“[And Tell Me Nolies] stumbled pretty good leaving [the gate] and I wasn’t too thrilled with that, but Ramon didn’t panic,” Miller said. “He let her get up and get into her stride, and that was the key.”
Circling three wide into bend, And Tell Me Nolies charged past the tiring front-runners under steady encouragement from Vasquez and sprinted to the wire, fending off Uncontrollable by three-quarters of a length.—Molly Rollins