Miss Mo Kelly, a 4-year-old Congrats filly, turned in a dynamic stretch run Dec. 11 at Remington Park, coming from eighth at the top of the lane to win the $100,000 She’s All In S. by two lengths.
The bay filly was making her first start and thus became the 25th lifetime black type winner for Congrats, whose 158 winners in 2016 is tied for second-most by any sire standing in North America this year.
After breaking from post 1, Miss Mo Kelly dropped back in the field while holding her spot on the rail. Jockey Belen Quinonez sat about six lengths off the lead down the backstretch while a six-way battle for the lead developed going into the final turn.
Quinonez stayed on the fence until just before heading in the stretch, when he swung the Paul Holthus trainee five-wide and rolled past the frontrunners. The final time for the 1 mile and 70 yards was 1:42.65 (VIDEO).
“Paul told me to warm her up good and try to stay in the race and go from there,” said Quinonez. “It was no pressure, coming out of the 1-hole, I just let her run into the first turn. Down the backside, I was trying to stay in the middle of the race and at the three-eighths pole, I knew I had some horse and knew I had to start looking for a place to run. I knew she kind of liked to come out around horses so that’s what I was trying to do. She did it all, I just held on.”
Miss Mo Kelly upped her record to 3-6-3 in 18 starts and has now banked $216,841 for onwer Dundalk 5 LLC. She was bred in Kentucky by Delfiner Partners.
