Joyful Victory wins Tiffany Lass Stakes

Fox Hill Farm's Joyful Victory certainly lives up to her name, and the 4-year-old filly returned to the winner's circle Saturday with a rousing 1/2-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Tiffany Lass Stakes at the Fair Grounds.

The multiple graded stakes winning daughter of Grade 1 winner Tapit displayed her competitiveness in turning back the challenge of her rival Ravi's Song in the race's final 1/8-mile. Joyful Victory's last win was in the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes on April 10 at Oaklawn Park, a race she won by 7-lengths. The gray filly had finished second in her 2012 debut on Jan. 11, in a 1-mile race on the turf (her first start on grass), where the Ontario-bred was beaten by only 3/4-length.

Joyful Victory is conditioned by Larry Jones, and was broken and trained by Tim and Cary Frommer, and was ridden to victory by jockey Robby Albarado.

Joyful Victory has won 4 races from 10 starts, placed second twice, and third once, increasing her lifetime earnings to $540,068.

It was a good day for gray, 4-year-old daughters of Tapit as Dogwood Stable's Ginger Snapit won a 1-mile and 70-yards allowance race Saturday at Aqueduct by 1 1/2-lengths. Ginger Snapit was ridden to victory by jockey Eddie Castro, who has triumphantly returned to the saddle after sustaining a hairline fracture of his L1 vertebra last fall. George Weaver trains Ginger Snapit, who was broken and trained in Aiken by Legacy Stable's Ron Stevens and Brad Stauffer.

Ginger Snapit increased her lifetime earnings to $87,640 with the victory.

The pre-race nominations to the 68th running of the Mardi Gras Handicap at the Fair Grounds on Feb. 21 include two horses with local ties.

Jim and Debbie Miller's Daisy Devine has been nominated to the 1 1/16-mile race on the turf. The half-sister to stakes winner's Patent Pending and Bargainwiththdevil, will be making her first start of 2012, and her debut against older horses.

Daisy Devine breezed 5-furlongs in 1:01 1/5 seconds on Feb. 6 at the Fair Grounds and appears poised for the first start of her 4-year-old campaign.

"She's doing well and feeling good," said Jim Miller, in a phone interview Sunday evening. "We gave her a little time off. She's kind of a front running horse. She likes to stalk the pace. I think we have an advantage being that she runs well at the Fair Grounds on both turf and dirt, so if the race comes off the turf, she'll be ready."

Daisy Devine won the Pago Hop Stakes on Nov. 26, and would also go onto win the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and the Grade 3 Pin Oak Valley View Stakes at Keeneland during her sophomore campaign. The Millers and trainer Andrew McKeever have the Grade 3 Double Dog Stakes at Keeneland this spring on their radar.

Clark Brewster's graded stakes winner Cherokee Queen is also among the pre-race nominations for the Mardi Gras Handicap. The 7-year-old mare continues to get better with age as she won her 2012 debut on Jan. 14, the Marie G. Krantz Memorial Handicap at the Fair Grounds. It was her second consecutive stakes victory as she ended 2011 with a win in the Blushing K.D. Handicap at the Fair Grounds on Dec. 17. The daughter of the 1994 Eclipse Award winning Sprinter Cherokee Run, was broken and trained by Tim and Cary Frommer. Cherokee Queen is conditioned by Steve Margolis.

A seven time stakes winner, Cherokee Queen breezed 5-furlongs in 1:01 on Feb. 12. The dark bay mare is a half-sister to stakes winner Indian Legend (also broken and trained by Tim and Cary Frommer), and has earned $613,312.