ARCADIA — After being overmatched in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies last fall, Meaning showed improvement and enjoyed some racing luck to turn the tables on Super Corredora and Explora in the $100,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Flavien Prat rode 3-year-old Meaning ($7.80) for the first time. Trainer Michael McCarthy won his third race of the afternoon and his second at the stakes level, a half-hour after 5-year-old Yellow Card ($8.40) and jockey Emisael Jaramillo went from last to first in the $100,000 Clockers’ Corner turf sprint.
Meaning benefited from a front-end battle between Super Corredora and Explora, who’d run 1-2 in the Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar. Explora, the 4-5 favorite Saturday, held on to finish 1-1/2 lengths back in second. Super Corredora tried to finish last in the field of four 3-year-old fillies in a 1-mile steppingstone to the April 4 Santa Anita Oaks.
Meaning had finished fourth at the Breeders’ Cup in her second start.
“She’s a stronger filly, more mature. She’s put on a lot of weight over the last couple of months,” McCarthy said. “It was a big ask going from a maiden (win) at Los Alamitos to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. (She’s had) a little time after the Juvenile Fillies to get her feet back underneath her and prepare for something like this.
“The way she did it was pretty impressive, against a Breeders’ Cup winner and runnerup.”
Meaning, a daughter of Gun Runner, is owned by Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, both part of the group that has 2025 Preakness winner Journalism with McCarthy.