Godolphin’s Wondrous makes Primonetta her first stakes victory
By Vinnie Perrone
LAUREL, MD–A few days ago, jockey Angel Cruz took out his cellphone and dialed a winning number.
Word traveled that trainer Juan Carlos Guerrero planned to ship the blossoming filly Boutwell Time from Parx to Laurel Park for Saturday’s $100,000 Heavenly Cause Stakes, which left Cruz to make a call to Jeriel Catala.
Catala had ridden Boutwell Time’s winning run in the Mrs. Claus Stakes on the last day of 2025, but had taken time off not long thereafter. Catala related to Guerrero Cruz’s interest in taking Boutwell Time through the Heavenly Cause.
Cruz awaited a reply. And waited. And waited. This morning, hours before the race, he learned the mount was his.
Cruz discussed tactics by phone with Guerrero and Catala and later guided Boutwell Time to a mildly surprising victory at 5-2 odds, longest among the three chestnut filles pursuing the $60,000 grand prize.
The one-mile stakes lost some sparkle after half the field was withdrawn, including crackerjack sprinter Takethemoneyhoney and allowance-winning upstart Ms. Notion. (Trainer Phil Capuano has Ms. Notion and stablemate Mopo entered in a Laurel Park allowance sprint Friday.) What the Heavenly Cause lacked in horseflesh it packed in action; the outcome left muddled inside the last furlong.
Three-time stakes winner Complexity Jane, favored at 9-10 from the rail, moved to a scant early lead as Boutwell Time pursued closely, Atlantis Queen (6-5) peeled to her right flank. Complexity Jane moved to a clear lead as jockey Sheldon Russell directed her through respectable fractions — a half-mile in 47.97 seconds, three-quarters in 1:12.77.
Cruz spoke of a certain challenge navigating a three-horse field. “It’s tougher than a huge field, actually, because you don’t know if the horse in front is going easy or what,” he said.
Complexity Jane, a well-built filly known about the Brittany Russell barn for quirks that match her size, moved with business-like purpose and held a two-length lead turning for home. Early in the stretch, Russell managed a peek back at his chasers, in time to see Boutwell Time off the rail and gaining.
Boutwell Time collared the leader inside the furlong pole and proceeded to a four-length victory, finishing the mile in 1:38.37 over a fast track. Complexity Jane, shouldering six pounds more than the winner, held second by four lengths over Atlantis Queen and eclipsed $300,000 in lifetime earnings, third-best among Complexity’s progeny.
“I took my time, I rode the race like they told me to, and they had her ready,” said Cruz, who set a personal best last year with 148 victories in his 12th year riding. “She does everything right.”
Boutwell Time hasn’t missed a winning opportunity since November. A 4-year-old by vaunted stallion Not This Time from the Jimmy Creed mare Del Mar May, she took an optional claimer at Parx in her third start (12th overall) for Guerrero, another at Laurel Park, then won the Mrs. Claus to close 2025. The Heavenly Cause, her first start this year, pushed her career earnings to $216,797 and left Cruz hoping for another phone conversation.
“I’m gonna ask to ride her again,” Cruz said. “Anytime they want me. I’ll go anywhere.”
*All In The Family: Wondrous Takes The Primonetta
Wondrous honored her heritage and gladdened her backers with a decisive victory in the $100,000 Primonetta Stakes.
A 4-year-old filly bred and owned by international powerhouse Godolphin LLC, Wondrous benefitted from Cruz’s patient ride and Brendan Walsh’s sound training in achieving her first stakes victory, a 4 3/4-length decision over Twirling Beauty. Dwelling Legacy finished third, and Wisconsin Gal last after Alani’s withdrawal left a field of four.
Racing horses at Keeneland on Blue Grass Stakes Day, Walsh missed Wondrous’s breakthrough performance. The Uncle Mo-sired bay, a half-sister to $2 million winner Maxfield and $600,000 earner Loved, reached Laurel from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas and relished the new digs.
Wondrous broke crisply from post 3 and raced between Twirling Beauty and Dwelling Legacy before Cruz thought better of it. He eased her back but kept her hungry, then started urging the favorite midway through the turn of the six-furlong affair.
Wondrous advanced three-wide into the lane, made the lead soon into the homestretch, and widened with gusto. On a fast track, she stopped the clock in 1:11.91, producing a $4.20 win mutuel and giving Cruz a sweep of Laurel’s two stakes for females.
His first mount for Walsh and Godolphin seemed to bring Cruz no angst. He started his prep work by watching race replays and talking to those who rode her, then spoke to Walsh by phone early in the day, got some instructions, and followed them. Verbatim.
At 31, he said, he’s become a more patient rider; the results are evident. He finished second to apprentice Yedsit Hazlewood in victories at the Laurel Park meeting that ended last week.
“I can still be aggressive when I need to be,” he said, “but patience is the key.”
Walsh, too, has marked time with Wondrous. After she won her debut at Turfway Park 15 months ago, Wondrous faltered in a stakes race and eventually went unraced for nearly nine months before returning in a first-level allowance race at Fair Grounds this past January. She won the second such try at that level five weeks ago, then trained her way to the Primonetta.
The victory, her third in six outings, upped her purse earnings to $153,768, more than 30 times that of her accomplished dam. Velvety (by Bernardini from the Storm Cat mare Caress) raced three times in England for Godolphin, won once, then started having babies. Maxfield, her Street Sense-sired second foal, won six graded stakes. Loved, her Medaglia d’Oro-sired fourth foal, won one.
Primonetta, the race’s namesake, produced four stakes winners herself and won the title as national Broodmare of the Year in 1978. As a racehorse, the Swaps-sired Primonetta won or placed in 21 of 25 starts and was named champion handicap mare in her 4-year-old season, 1962.
