Reason To Fly Mv Has Fastest Golden State Derby Time; Rios Ayala And Apollitical Patty Okay After Early Mishap LOS ALAMITOS, CA—JULY 24, 2021—Making her first start since November 2020, Paulo Otavio Freire Macedo’s homebred Reason To Fly MV won the second of two trials to the Grade 2, $197,700 Golden State Derby while posting the fastest qualifying time of the night on Sunday at Los Alamitos.

The second trial was marred by a mishap right out of the gate involving jockey Jesus Rios Ayala aboard the millionaire filly Apollitical Patty. All looked fine as Apollitical Patty entered the gate, but pair had an awkward start leaving there, leading to Rios Ayala losing his balance and being dismounted off Apollitical Patty. The superstar filly continued racing riderless from there and fortunately both Rios Ayala and the multiple stakes winning sprinter escaped the incident unharmed.

Ridden by Cruz Mendez for trainer Jose Flores, Reason To Fly MV floated out from post number two, but eventually took the lead in the later stages of the 400-yard trial to outduel Thats R Best Card by a half-length in a time of :19.954. This was her third win in six career starts, in which she’s finished third or better every single time.

“We broke a little bit to the right,” Mendez said. “I tried to make her feel comfortable because she was fighting the whole way. I don’t know if she felt that she was by herself out there because she shied away from (Thats R Best Card) when she saw him. I loved the way she finished. I think with a good start we can maybe do something special in the final. It’s a wide-open race now. She’s been off for a while. She had a nice 350-yard gate work and that got her ready for this trial.”

A filly by Good Reason SA, Reason To Fly MV finished second to Monopolist in last year’s Grade 2 PCQHRA Breeders Futurity.

In the opening trial, Gentry Farms’ College Scandal surprised the 1-2 favorite Aint She Tempting, outdueling the Oklahoma Futurity(G2) winner by a neck to score at 8-1 odds. The Kentucky-bred filly by Coronas Leaving You entered this race after finishing second to A Dash Of Sign in an allowance event on June 18. The victory was her third in 14 career starts.

“This filly has just been having little issues in the gate,” trainer Juan Aleman said of College Scandal. “She hasn’t been able to get out. She didn’t break all that well, but I knew she had some close. I knew she was going to like 400 because in all her past races she would close, but she would get into some trouble. Today she had enough room, and she ran down that filly. We’re just proud and happy to be in the (final). That race (against Dash Of Sign) showed me that she wanted more distance. She was closing on that filly of Reliance Ranch real fast, and I knew she liked the distance. Today she showed it.”

Ridden by Ramon Sanchez, College Scandal finished with the third fastest time of :20.034.

For the complete list of qualifiers with times, sires, dams, owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys CLICK HERE.

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