OKLAHOMA CITY – It has been a trying meet for trainer Stacy Charette-Hill, having won only three times in her first 84 starts, but some of that sting was relieved by her multiple stakes-winning mare Valiant Miss Priss taking the feature allowance race Sunday.
Charette-Hill was tied for 38th in the trainer standings with those three wins going into Sunday’s races after finishing seventh in the 2022 standings with 17 wins. It’s not that her horses were running poorly, running second or third 35 times in those 84 starts, losing by noses, heads and necks. So, what does one do when you can’t buy a win? You pull the big runner out of the barn.
Valiant Miss Priss, a multiple stakes winner, ran in allowance company on Sunday and cruised to an easy win by a full length against fillies and mares, 3-yearolds and older, at 400 yards. The mare broke on top and won at 7-2 odds, paying $9.60 to win, $4.80 to place and $3.60 to show under jockey Cristian Esqueda. The 2-1 favorite, Candy Going Grand, could only manage a fifth-place finish in this field of eight.
Last year, Valiant Miss Priss had backto- back graded stakes wins in the $34,000 Distaff Challenge at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa on Aug. 20, and then following that up with a trip to the winner’s circle in the Grade 1, $110,000 Distaff Challenge Championship at Horseshoe Indianapolis on Oct. 22. In the latter stakes she beat another multiple-stakes winner in Lynnder 16, and stakes winner Kiss Me Suzy.
Both of Valiant Miss Priss’ stakes wins came at 400 yards as did her allowance feature victory on Sunday. Esqueda has ridden her to all five wins in her career.
On Sunday, Valiant Miss Priss broke on top and was never headed in the allowance win. She earned $20,988 from the $35,000 purse and improved her record lifetime to 11 starts, five wins, two seconds and one third for earnings of $135,308. She was purchased by ownertrainer Charette-Hill for $23,000 in the 2019 Ruidoso Select Yearling Sale in New Mexico. The winning mare, a 5-year-old by Valiant Hero, out of the PYC Paint Your Wagon mare, Corona Mit Go, was bred in Oklahoma by Christie and Mikel Donahue.
Valiant Miss Priss stopped the timer in :19.865 over a fast track on Sunday. That time earned a speed index of 89. It was faster than one of her stakes victories at the same distance a year ago.
Charette-Hill’s numbers through Sunday stand at 85 starts, four wins, 18 seconds and 17 thirds. Most of the trainers with four wins around her in the standings are all in single digits in the place and show columns.
Remington Park has seven more race dates remaining in the spring season starting with a Thursday-Sunday schedule, May 25-28. Post time is 6 p.m. nightly with the exception of 4 p.m. on Sundays. All times are Central.
