Berkeley, Calif. (May 12, 2018)- Sent off at odds of 12-1, four-year-old filly Bella Luma sat off a fast pace before motoring to the front down to the stretch to pick up her first stakes victory in the $50,000 Golden Poppy Stakes for fillies and mares three-years-old and upward. Trainer Ed Moger Jr. scored his first stakes win of the meet in the mile and a sixteenth turf contest.
“I got out [of the gate] fast and got in a good spot,” said winning jockey Catalino Martinez. “By the five-sixteenths pole, I was just waiting to make a move. I knew I had a lot of horse. I had her switch leads [down the stretch] and she just took off.”
Bella Luma, bred by Thomas Bachman and co-owned by Bachman and Linda Brown, came into the Golden Poppy fresh off of two allowance victories on Tapeta earlier in the meet. The daughter of Ministers Wild Cat had never won in four starts on the lawn prior to the Golden Poppy triumph.
With the stakes win, Bella Luma improved her career record to 4 wins from 13 starts, with earnings of $136,317.