Stunning Sky Takes Pin Oak Valley View in Stakes-Record Time

Paradise Farms Corp. and Parkland Thoroughbreds’ Stunning Sky rallied from far off the pace to catch Princess Grace in deep stretch and pull away to a half-length victory in the 30^th running of the $150,000 Pin Oak Valley View (G3) for 3-year-old fillies Friday afternoon.

Trained by Mike Maker and ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., Stunning Sky covered 1 1/16 miles on a firm turf course in 1:41.33. The clocking broke the stakes record of 1:41 2/5 established by Spinning Round in 1992.

Outburst (GB) led the field of 10 through early fractions of :22.71, :46.23 and 1:10.50 with Walk In Marrakesh (IRE) just in back of her to the outside through the early running as Stunning Sky raced at the back of the pack with How Ironic.

In the stretch, Princess Grace swept past the leaders on the outside and opened a daylight advantage by the eighth pole. Stunning Sky, third from last at the head of the stretch, swung widest of all and was able to overtake Princess Grace in the final 20 yards.

A Keeneland sales graduate, Stunning Sky is a Kentucky-bred daughter of Declaration of War out of the Unbridled’s Song mare Sky Walk. The victory was worth $90,000 and boosted her earnings to $304,825 with a record of 11-3-2-1. It is her first stakes victory.

Stunning Sky paid $13.80, $6.40 and $4.80. Princess Grace, ridden by Shaun Bridgmohan, returned $9.40 and $7.20 with How Ironic rallying from last and finishing another half-length back in third under Rafael Bejarano and paying $10.60 to show.

It was another 2½ lengths back to Witez, who was followed in order by favored Duopoly, Outburst, Sugar Fix, Antoinette, Walk In Marrakesh and Pranked.