Genuine Victory for Rock Filly

7th July 2008

Talented mare Genuine Devotion (4m Rock of Gibraltar x Starlight Dreams, by Black Tie Affair) kept the ball rolling for her sire Rock of Gibraltar when she scored a tenacious win in the Group Three Locust Grove Stakes at Churchill Downs.

Attempting to run past six furlongs for the first time, Genuine Devotion led and fought on strongly to win the one mile event on turf by half a length.

“My filly was very comfortable today and I had a lot of horse. At the quarter pole, I asked her and she was running. She began to pick it up and I looked back, and nobody was coming. She got the job done,” said winning rider Alan Garcia.

A stakes-winner at her last outing at Belmont, the Kiaran McLaughlin trained Genuine Devotion has the overall record of five wins from eight starts with prizemoney of $275,725.

Genuine Devotion was purchased for $90,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and is from the Black Tie Affair mare Starlight Dreams, a half-sister to stakes-winner Matahif, from the family of Arc winner Sakhee.

Rock of Gibraltar also featured in Europe at the weekend with top class four year-old Mount Nelson, winner of the Group One Coral Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.