BY BROCK SHERIDAN
My Miss Mo went right to the front from the start, repelled a challenge by Bodacious Bay coming out of the second turn then drew off in the stretch to easily win the $150,000 Monmouth Oaks (Grade 3) for 3-year-old fillies going a mile-and-a-sixteenth at Monmouth Park Saturday. It was the second consecutive graded stakes victory for My Miss Mo, who won in a field reduced to six after four scratches.
The victory outside Florida at this level also earns a $5,000 Export Incentive for Valerie Mastromonaco of Ocala, Florida; Tristan de Meric of Ocala and Uncle Mo Syndicate of Versailles, Kentucky; the breeders of My Miss Mo. The Export Incentive is paid by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.
My Miss Mo and jockey Micah Husbands promptly had a length on Bodacious Bay in second into the clubhouse turn and continued on the lead through comfortable quarter-mile fractions of :24.60 and :48.88 on the fast track. Bodacious Bay and jockey Cristian Torres tried to make a race of it late in the second turn, ranging up to the outside of My Miss Mo after six furlongs in 1:12.22, but could not keep up in the run for home. My Miss Mo was a length in front past the furlong marker before winning by a length-and-a-half in 1:43.29. Bodacious Bay was second, two-and-a-quarter lengths faster than Jumping the Gun in third. Pashmina, Point of Reference and Ivy Girl completed the order of finish. Zany, Laken, Florida-bred Majestic Lucia and Miss Fulton Gal were scratched.
“I felt [Bodacious Bay] on the outside coming at us to challenge but it kept [My Miss Mo] going,” Husbands said. “It kept her focused. I don’t think it was a serious threat for her. For a rider, knowing someone is there, you get a little concerned. But she handled it professionally.
“My plan was, if I got an easy lead, I was going to take it. If anybody really wanted it more than me I was going to track, But she broke good and nobody really wanted the lead, so I never took her out of her rhythm.
My Miss Mo was let go at 5-2 and paid $7.80 to win.
My Miss Mo won the Grade 2 Black Eyed Susan at Laurel Park on May 15 after scratching out of the Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier. In two other starts this year, both at Gulfstream Park, the bay daughter of Uncle Mo was second in the one-mile Davona Dale (G2) won by She Be Smooth in February and second to Prom Queen in mile-and-one-sixteenth Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 28.
“She just needed two turns,” trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. said. “That’s the difference. She showed so much speed breezing we thought she would be a very good one-turn graded stakes filly. We weren’t really seeing it [in longer races]. Even when she won by 12 lengths [in her second career start at Gulfstream last year] the number didn’t come back good. But since she has gone two turns, she is a different horse.”
My Miss Mo has now won three of seven career starts with three seconds and earnings of $418,030 for owners Rich Averill’s Averill Racing based in Bradenton, Florida; Billy and Terry Mathis and their Mathis Racing in Oklahoma City and Tristan de Meric.
She is the first foal out of the winning Quality Road mare In a Dream, who has an unnamed yearling filly and a weanling colt, both by Flightline. The filly sold for $285,000 to Blue Sky Stables at last year’s Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. In a Dream is a half-sister to 2021 Pimlico Special (G3) and multiple stakes-winner Harper’s First Ride and stakes-placed Klugman.
My Miss Mo was a $320,000 purchase by Averill Racing and Mathis Racing out of the de Meric Sales consignment at the 2025 Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale.
“Obviously you want to see a race like this to follow up her Black-Eyed Susan win,” Joseph said. “We were thinking about the Coaching Club America Oaks [at Saratoga] but it came up very tough and she was coming off a little layoff. We thought it made more sense to go to Monmouth to see if we would see the same kind of filly… …If she did good, we could get ambitious and try her in a Grade 1 after this. It could be the Alabama or Cotillion. This one is nice today. This one means a lot. We’re going to enjoy it and then come up with a plan.”
Return to the July 25 issue of Wire to Wire
