Beautiful Gift catches Moraz in Santa Ysabel

Mar 07, 2021 by James Scully/TwinSpires.com

Beautiful Gift returned from a lengthy layoff to win Sunday’s $100,000 Santa Ysabel S. (G3), running down Moraz in the shadow of the wire. Last seen breaking her maiden in October, the Bob Baffert-trained filly joined the Kentucky Oaks picture with the head decision.

John Velazquez picked up the assignment on the Baoma Corp. homebred daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, and Beautiful Gift finished the 1 1/16-mile distance in 1:44.83.

As a Road to the Kentucky Oaks series qualifier, the Santa Ysabel awarded points on a 50-20-10-5 scale.

Off as the 3-1 third choice among four runners, Beautiful Gift stalked the pace in third as her Grade 2-winning stablemate, odds-on favorite Kalypso, showed the way on a short lead. Moraz was tracking the pacesetter in second and advanced to challenge nearing the completion of the far turn.

Moraz shrugged off Kalypso in upper stretch, opening up by a couple of lengths, but Beautiful Gift was steadily advancing on the far outside. The winner closed determinedly late to get up in the final strides.

Moraz easily held second at 2-1 odds. It was 2 3/4 lengths to Kalypso in third, and Heels Up was never a factor checking in last.

Fourth when making her career debut at Del Mar in early September, Beautiful Gift graduated at second asking as the odds-on favorite.

The Kentucky-bred filly is out of the A.P. Indy mare Sea Gift, and Beautiful Gift counts Grade 3 scorer Chitu, who finished ninth in the 2014 Kentucky Derby, as a half-brother.