Ticker Tape Leads Parade in Providencia

Jim Cassidy became the third trainer to win the Providencia Stakes two years in a row when Ticker Tape scored a mild surprise in the $113,700 race on Sunday at Santa Anita.

Cassidy, who had won the ungraded contest with Star Vega in 2003 for the same owners -- a partnership that includes Jim Ford, Deron Pearson and Jack Sweesy, joined Gary Jones and Bobby Frankel as the only trainers to win consecutive Providencia Stakes.

Ticker Tape, who paid $11.40 to win, defeated 7-1 shot Amorama and 10 other 3-year-old fillies by 2 1/2 lengths for her fourth win in 11 starts.

Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, who had last won the Providencia with Country Garden in 1998, Ticker Tape, a daughter of British sire Royal Applause, completed the mile on turf in 1:34.55.

Second in her first two races in the U.S. after starting her career in England, Ticker Tape made an aggressive move along the backside to move into third, angled out approaching the stretch, kicked clear when asked to do so and was unchallenged in the final eighth of a mile.

“It was a handy ride, so to speak,” Desormeaux said. “She was always in the bridle, and she let me know all the way around the racetrack that she was just dying to go faster.

“I was going to inherit the lead earlier than I wanted to, and I was able to slow her down from the three-eighths pole to the quarter pole, gave her a nice breather and when I asked her to run she just took off. She’d been begging me to ask her to do that.”

Mambo Slew, the 2-1 favorite who had beaten Ticker Tape in their first two meetings, finished 10th, her second loss in a row after three consecutive grass wins for trainer Patrick Biancone.

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With five days left, jockey Victor Espinoza has wrapped up his first riding title at Santa Anita’s winter-spring meet.

Espinoza has 83 victories and is 14 in front of Alex Solis and 17 ahead of Tyler Baze.

Desormeaux remains the last jockey to win the winter-spring meet two years in a row. Desormeaux, who ranks sixth in the standings this year, accomplished the feat during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 meetings.

Since Desormeaux’s double, the leading riders have been Corey Nakatani, Solis, Desormeaux, David Flores, Nakatani, Laffit Pincay Jr., Solis and, last year, Patrick Valenzuela.

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The race for leading trainer is far from over, but one thing is certain: Bob Baffert’s seven-year run atop the heap has ended. Baffert is fifth with 26 victories, 14 behind current leader Jeff Mullins.

Mullins won the first race with 5-1 shot Dinan to break a tie with Doug O’Neill.

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Jockey Kerwin John ended an 0-for-104 streak at Santa Anita when Imgunabeinpictures, a 4-1 shot, won the seventh race.