NYRA/Chelsea Durand
By Sarah Mace
This year’s $100,000 Union Avenue Stakes, a Saratoga staple for New York-bred fillies and mares at 6 1/2 furlongs, attracted a small but intriguing field of five multiple stakes winners, most of whom have knocked heads before. After the dust settled, 7-2 second choice Bonita Bianca capped a long drive from fourth place with a final surge inside the sixteenth pole to secure her fourth career stakes victory.
Owned by Michael Dubb, Bethlehem Stables LLC and Michael Imperio and trained by Rudy Rodriguez through 2017, Bonita Bianca switched barns to Jason Servis in 2018. The 4-year-old daughter of Curlin began the year with a rallying victory in an $20,000 optional claimer at Monmouth, but in her most recent effort had to settle for fifth in Delaware Park’s Dashing Beauty after getting mired down on the rail on a day where the fence was not the place to be.
Away driving from post four, Bonita Bianca settled in fourth well off the fence while her speedy stablemate Picco Uno, winner of the Union Avenue last year and favored at 1-2 favorite following a career performance in the Dancin Renee on June 16, struck the lead. By the first point of call, however, Picco Uno took back to track an even more aggressive Swing and Sway, who claimed the top spot.
Swing and Sway, a Ron Moquett-trainee who attracted the services of jockey Javier Castellano, was a relatively unfamiliar face having won a pair of listed stakes at Oaklawn Park this year, and was overlooked in the wagering at 7-1 odds.
Coglianese Photo
As Swing and Sway led the field through a hot 21.57 opening quarter and 44.02 half with Picco Uno pressing the pace, jockey Manny Franco continued to get after Bonita Bianca. The pair advanced into third while rounding the far turn five-wide and in upper stretch set their sights on Swing and Sway and Picco Uno.
With enough left in the tank to turn on the afterburners late, Bonita Bianca made the lead just past the sixteenth pole and drew off to win by 1 1/2 lengths. Swing and Sway and Picco Uno completed the trifecta, followed by Wonderment and Absatootly. After six panels in 1:08.82, the final time over the fast main track was a sharp 1:15.39. [VIDEO REPLAY]
“I was happy where I was [far outside], because my filly doesn’t like to get that much dirt on her face,” said Franco. “I know they were going fast in front. I just took my time and when the time came, I let her run.”
The pilot continued, “I think the [6 1/2-furlong] distance fits her really good. The trainer did a great job with the horse. She showed she belongs here. She’s a nice filly and she did it today.”
Servis said, “They were moving really fast early up front. The fractions they were putting up kind of compromised Picco Uno, but it certainly benefited Bonita Bianca.”
As to race strategy, the conditioner said, “The only instructions I had for Manny coming into the race was that she didn’t like to get hit in the face with dirt. In her last start at Delaware she really ran when she was wheeled out and today she got the perfect setup and certainly took advantage of the early splits. It was a nice win for her.”
Bred by Dormellito Stud and foaled at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, Bonita Bianca was purchased by Michael Dubb for $97,000 at the 2016 OBS March juvenile sale. With an impressive record of six wins from 12 career starts, with a second and two thirds, Bonita Bianca has earned $470,917. At two she won both the Maid of the Mist and East View Stakes while collecting a placing in the Grade 2 Damoiselle Stakes. At three she added the New York Oaks at Finger Lakes to her stakes tally.
Bonita Bianca’s dam is Friendly Michelle, a Kentucky-bred daughter of Artax and winner of the Grade 1 Prioress and Grade 3 La Troienne Stakes in 2004.
In 2006 Friendly Michelle sold to Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings for $1.15 million at the Keeneland November sale in 2006. In 2013 Steven Rowan bought the mare for $42,000 with Bonita Bianca in utero at the same sale. Friendly Michelle has produced six winners in all. She has a yearling colt by Paynter, no reported foal in 2018 and was bred to Ghostzapper in the spring.
