Harris Farms Bred Lynne’s Legacy Rallies for Win In Miss America S.

Albany, CA (December 8, 2018)-In the $63,125 first division of the Miss America, Lynne’s Legacy unleashed a strong closing kick to rally from last to first.

Winning rider Alonso Quinonez was content to sit back early on the 5-year-old daughter of Unusual Heat. She is the fiftieth stakes winner for her sire.

“That’s the way she runs races, I was going to do that no matter what. I got a perfect trip,” he said.

Lynne’s Legacy was last in the field of eight as Savannah Slew set the early pace. The front-runner was challenged and overtaken by Birdie Gold into the stretch, but the new leader was no match for the late-running Lynne’s Legacy, who split horses in the lane, defeating Fiery Lady by 1 1/2 lengths. Birdie Gold was a head behind the runner-up in third. The winning time was 1:44.08.

Lynne’s Legacy was claimed away from trainer Doug O’Neill two starts back at Santa Anita for $40,000. In her next start, on Nov. 22 at Del Mar, two of the original owners, Maureen Richardson and Steve Rothblum, joined by Ritchie Robershaw, teamed with O’Neill to claim her back for the same price. Her win Saturday was worth $39,450 to the group.

Going into the Miss America, Lynne’s Legacy had made 27 of her 28 career starts on turf, but when the race was moved to the synthetic main track, the connections decided to stay in the race.

“We knew turf horses run well on it so we decided to run,” said Leandro Mora, O’Neill’s assistant. “My only concern was it’s brown, and she might think she was running on dirt, but she’s like me, color-blind, so it didn’t matter.”

Lynne’s Legacy has now won 5 of 29 starts with total earnings of $305,780.