Hot Summer springs forward in G3 Comely

Malibu Moon’s Hot Summer shot through along the rail to wrap up a tidy 2 1/4-length victory in the $150,000 Comely S. (G3) April 9 at Aqueduct.[Watch Video] This was the first stakes victory for the 3-year-old filly, who broke her maiden in October at Philadelphia Park, then dominated an allowance race at Monmouth Park the following month.

Hot Summer had to bide her time tucked along the rail for the first three-quarters of the one mile Comely. With Luis Saez waiting patiently for an opening while tracking in the third spot, he was rewarded when the frontrunners drifted out slightly at the top of the stretch. The dark bay/brown filly slid past her foes to pull away in the final stages. She stopped the clock in 1:35.58.

“[She’s] got speed,” said Saez, who was riding Hot Summer for the first time. “When she got to the gate, she wanted to go, but I got hold of her. At the three-eighths pole, I waited for the hole to open, and she responded. This is my first time riding here. I like it.”

“I didn’t think (the rail would open),” winning trainer Fawkes said. “I didn’t think she would get through there. We’ve been working hard with her to sit off the pace, and it worked out. We’ll talk to Mr. [owner Harold] Queen and try to make a plan. I think she’s going to stay here.”

Bred in Virginia by Lazy Lane Farms, the $90,000 payday raised Hot Summer’s lifetime earnings to $158,200 from a mark of 3-0-1 in five starts. Queen purchased the filly out of the 2009 Keeneland Sept yearling sale for $180,000.