Grade 3 Sweetest Chant S. goes to More Than Ready filly

Consumer Credit captured her third straight win with an impressive performance in Saturday’s Sweetest Chant S. (G3) at Gulfstream Park. The 3-year-old filly is More Than Ready’s 62nd lifetime graded stakes winner and 140th black-type winner, second-most of any stallion standing in North America.

Edgar Zayas gave Consumer Credit a perfect ride in the one-mile turf contest. With a quartet of fillies going for the top spot into the first turn, Zayas tucked his mount neatly just behind the early scramble. Sitting a good trip just off the lead down the backstretch, Zayas came off the rail around the turn as the pace increased. Going some four wide into the stretch, Consumer Credit accelerated powerfully a furlong from the finish and won going away by a little more than a length.

The final time was 1:35.80 on the firm turf.

“I had a really nice trip,” Zayas said. “I knew there was a lot of speed in the race, so I just wanted to stalk and try to save as much ground as I could and try to get her clear at the end. It all worked out good. I had a ton of horse going to the wire. She’s a really nice filly. She’s getting better and better.” 
 
Added trainer Chad Brown, who has won the last four runnings of the Sweetest Chant: “I was a little worried that we’d run out of real estate. I could see once he got her in the clear, her stride lengthened and she was going to go for it. I knew it was going to be a close call but thankfully she got up in time. I didn’t want to promise anything beyond a mile but after the trip she got today and the way she finished, we’ll continue to try to stretch her out a sixteenth at a time and see how far she’ll go.”

Winner of the $75,000 Wait a While S. at Gulfstream Park West in her previous start, Consumer Credit is now 3-1-0 in five starts and has earned $165,445 for owners Klaravich Stables and William H. Lawrence. The Kentucky-bred filly sold for $185,000 at the 2013 Keeneland September Yearling sale.