Photo:

Susie Raisher / NYRA

Michael J. Ryan’s Irish homebred Be Your Best scored an elusive graded stakes victory in Sunday’s Grade 3, Long Island, a 1 3/8-mile inner turf test for fillies and mares 3 years old and up, at Aqueduct.

Trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., the 4-year-old Muhaarar bay previously was trained by Horacio De Paz and hit the board in four graded events, including a pair of Grade 1s in California last year. She entered from a sixth in the Rodeo Drive (G2) on Oct. 5 at Santa Anita, where she added blinkers for her first start for Joseph.

Be Your Best scored with a pacesetting trip engineered by Frankie Dettori, who guided her from post 7 to overtake early command from Whatlovelookslike and lead the field of 11 through early splits of 24.23 seconds, 49.06 and 1:14.65 over the firm footing.

The field raced in an even line to the backstretch with Whatlovelookslike tracking well back in second and Blush, who encountered some traffic troubles early, recovering to take third position. Be Your Best’s lead dwindled a touch heading into the final turn but lengthened again when asked for more through one mile in 1:39.16 with post-time favorite No Show Sammy Jo swinging widest of all from the rear of the field under Flavien Prat.

Be Your Best kicked away strongly from Whatlovelookslike and Blush in the stretch and appeared to be home free with most of her rivals spinning their wheels in vain, but No Show Sammy Jo gained with powerful strides down the center of the course and quickly made it a race again in the final sixteenth.

Dettori implored his mount for more as No Show Sammy Jo reached the wire at almost the same time as Be Your Best, and the latter eked out the photo-finish victory by a nose in a final time of 2:14.36.

Immensitude rallied to finish third another 2 1/2 lengths back as part of a three-way photo for show honors with Avenue Niel fourth and Whatlovelookslike fifth. Blush, La Mehana, Lady Firefoot, Dancing Dean, Broadway Boogie and Therearenorules completed the order of finish.

Dettori said Joseph was comfortable letting him determine the best course of action for the classy filly.

“They were telling me what a great form she was. I was able to dictate,” said Dettori, whose first win in the Empire State came in this event in 1991 aboard the Luca Cumani-trained Shaima. “Especially on the inner track, if you are able not to get taken on, then you are always very hard to catch. Flavien came off the pack and I wasn’t sure.

“I was going the pace that I wanted to,” Dettori continued. “She wasn’t going slow, but she wasn’t going flat out. She had a good rhythm, she was pricking her ears, and like I said, no one bothered me up front and when I stole those two lengths of the stretch, I was hard to catch.”

Prat said the Graham Motion-trained No Show Sammy Jo gave her best effort despite being further off the pace than anticipated in her first start beyond nine furlongs.

“She jumped well, but everyone went,” Prat said. “Going into the first turn, I wasn’t quick enough, so I find myself a little further back than I wanted to be. Then after that she made a good move, but that’s it.”

Bred in Ireland by Ryan’s St. Croix Bloodstock, Be Your Best banked $165,000 in victory while improving her record to 16: 3-3-2 with her first win since taking the listed P. G. Johnson as a juvenile at Saratoga. She returned $21.80 on a $2 win wager.