Photo:

Juliana Colombo / Eclipse Sportswire

Favored Vixen, a 3-year-old daughter of Vekoma ridden by John Velazquez, held off long shots Mrs Worldwide and Daisy Flyer to win Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Herecomesthebride by a neck at Gulfstream Park.

The one-mile Herecomesthebride on the turf was the first of nine stakes on the Saturday program.

Owned by D J Stable LLC and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Vixen made here 3-year-old debut here Feb. 1 with a victory in the Sweetest Chant after concluding her 2-year-old year with a sixth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Vixen broke sharply in the Herecomesthebride and raced third around the first turn and down the backstretch while Grade A set fractions of 22.97 and 46.51 seconds. Around the turn, Vixen moved three-wide outside Grade A and Mrs. Worldwide before taking the lead inside the final eighth. She finished a neck in front of Mrs Worldwide, with another head back to Daisy Flyer. Classic Q, another Casse-trained filly, closed with a rush and finished a nose behind Daisy Flyer.

Vixen, a winner of three of five starts, covered the mile over firm turf in 1:33.57.

This was the fourth Herecomesthebride victory for Casse, having won the stakes last year with Pounce, in 2017 with Dream Dancing and in 2016 with Catch a Glimpse.

Vixen returned $3.60, $2.60 and $2.20. Mrs Worldwide, 31-1 in the win pool, paid $12,20 and $8.20, while Daisy Flyer (87-1) paid $17.60 to show.

“She ran good,” Casse said of Vixen. “Maybe she bounced a little off her first performance but today was good. Hopefully, she moves on from there. She’s tough; she’s a good horse. Like I said, maybe she kind of regressed from her first start. She’ll have some time and she’ll be off to Kentucky.

“I thought Classic Q was going to be on the lead, but she got away bad. She ran a helluva race to be fourth.”

“I had an easy trip, to tell you the truth,” Velazquez said of Vixen. “They went a little faster than I expected. I had to take a really good hold of her the first part of the race. We got to the second turn and I let her go, and she was a little hesitant to go by the horse on the lead. We were laying second and we started getting closer. It was a good effort.

“She came back first time off the layoff and ran really great and she came back today to a little tougher group and ran a good race. She’s more mature, for sure. She’s doing things a lot easier from a 2-year-old to a 3-year-old. I think she has a little more in the bottom of her. I just hope she can (reach that) and move forward a little more.”