Materco Rebounds, Wins Providencia Stakes

The day after Mark MacDonald’s favorite hockey team moved closer to eliminating Calgary from the Stanley Cup playoffs, life got even better for the Kings’ season ticket-holder.

A trainer by trade, MacDonald saw Materco collect her second stakes victory of the Santa Anita meeting with a nose decision over favored Somethingmerry Wednesday in the $82,650 Providencia Stakes.

Materco, who had been a 16-1 winner in the California Breeders’ Champion Stakes on Jan. 3, bounced back from a lackluster sixth-place finish in the Las Virgenes in late February.

A daughter of Interco out of a Nijinsky II mare named Meadow Dancer, the 5-2 third choice figured to move up on the turf.

Far back after she came out less than alertly, Materco rallied wide into the stretch and edged Somethingmerry in 1:47 2/5 for the 1 1/8 miles.

“This one was almost a relief,” MacDonald said. “There were certainly some questions after her last race. We were definitely disappointed, but she got some redemption here.

“She was a little flat for a couple of days (after the Las Virgenes). It was (as though) she was almost upset. She didn’t come out of it like she usually does.”

Given time to recuperate, Materco had a series of solid drills on the grass, and her next appearance could also be on the turf. The California Oaks at Golden Gate Fields on April 29 is a distinct possibility.

Eddie Delahoussaye, who has ridden Materco in both of her stakes victories, thought that the bad start was a blessing in disguise.

“I had to straighten her out leaving the gate, but it probably did her some good,” he said, “because the last time I rode her she was rank, and in the morning she’s been rank. That stuff started to hit her today, and she was fine.”

Somethingmerry, who had won a division of the La Habra Stakes on March 14 in her turf debut, beat second choice Nijinsky’s Lover by nearly two lengths for the place.

“She was coming back again,” Laffit Pincay said of the runner-up. “She tried to respond. You can’t ask for more. She made the lead and didn’t quit.”

Horse Racing Notes

Materco paid $7.80 to win and earned $48,900 for owner W.R. Hawn. She has now won three of her 10 outings. . . . Robert Borick will leave training after the Santa Anita meeting ends on April 22. “I’m leaving next month for Florence, Mont., to run a 260-acre ranch there,” said Borick, who is winless at Santa Anita. . . . Thirty Slews, unbeaten in two starts, won’t be competing in the opening-day Debonair at Hollywood Park. Rather, the Bob Baffert-trained gelding will start in the $100,000 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 24. If he runs well there, Thirty Slews could go in the Kentucky Derby.