Alpine Princess finally breaks through in the Falls City

The Classic Empire filly denied a major upset by Corningstone in Churchill Downs’ traditional Thanksgiving Day feature

Alpine Princess Becomes a Graded Stakes Winner at Churchill Downs / CHURCHILL DOWNS

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Special for Turf Diario).- With a powerful performance and showing real authority late on, Alpine Princess defeated Corningstone (Kantharos) by two lengths to capture the 110th running of the Falls City S. (G3, $385,000), the traditional Thanksgiving Day feature at Churchill Downs.

Trained by Brad Cox and ridden by fall meet leading jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., the daughter of Classic Empire covered the 1 1/8 miles on a fast track in 1:50.46, notching her first career graded stakes victory and the fourth stakes win of her campaign.

Prior to this breakthrough, Alpine Princess had scored in the Untapable S. at two, the Remington Park Oaks at three, and this year’s Mari Hulman George Memorial H. at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

“I’m extremely proud of her for picking up her first graded win today. It means a lot to her owners, and to do it on Thanksgiving Day is very special,” said Cox, who previously won this race in 2019 with Mylady Curlin (Curlin).

Breaking from post 4 in a field of eight, Alpine Princess went straight to the front and set a comfortable opening quarter in :24.41. Down the backstretch, Corningstone took over, posting splits of :48.52 for the half and 1:12.70 for six furlongs.

Turning for home, Ortiz tipped Alpine Princess to the outside and the two fillies engaged in a thrilling stretch duel. Inside the final furlong, Alpine Princess found another gear and drew clear with authority to secure the victory.

“She broke really well and when Corningstone wanted the lead, I was able to let my filly relax a bit. In the stretch I tipped her outside and she really kicked again,” explained Ortiz Jr.Five and a quarter lengths back in third was Raging Sea (Curlin).

With the win, Alpine Princess improved her record to 6 wins, 4 seconds and 4 thirds from 17 starts, with earnings now totaling $949,065, racing for Full of Run Racing II (Dann Glick) and Madaket Stables (Sol Kumin).

“It means a whole lot to us that she finally got her graded win,” said Glick. “I’m very thankful to Brad and his entire team, and Irad gave her an outstanding ride. It’s a great way to head into her 5-year-old season and hopefully be a major player in the division.”

Proctor Street Scores in the Cardinal

On the same card, the Cardinal S. saw Proctor Street (Street Sense) find a narrow opening inside the final 200 meters and finish strongly to defeat Awesome Czech (Mendelssohn) by three-quarters of a length.

Trained by Brendan Walsh and piloted by Tyler Gaffalione, the filly covered 1 1/8 miles on firm turf in 1:49.65, registering the first stakes victory of her career.