Grade III Success for Stopchargingmaria

Talented filly Stopchargingmaria (2f Tale of the Cat x Exotic Bloom, by Montbrook) broke the ice with her first Black Type success at Aqueduct on Sunday when taking out the Grade III Tempted Stakes. Prepared by Todd Pletcher, Stopchargingmaria earned TDN Rising Star status for her brilliant debut win back in July before placing at her next two starts in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes and Frizette Stakes. Dropped back in class for this easier assignment, Stopchargingmaria gave nothing else a chance in crushing her rivals to win the one mile contest by ten and three-quarter lengths. “The way the race unfolded, it looked like nobody wanted the lead,” said Michael McCarthy, assistant to Todd Pletcher. “[Jockey] Javier [Castellano] went ahead and did the right thing by putting this filly in there early. He established position and was able to improve on it from there. She was doing it well within herself. It was a nice little bit of redemption.” A $220,000 purchase from the OBS March 2YO Sale, Stopchargingmaria runs for Repole Stable and is the first winner for stakes-winner Exotic Bloom, who comes from the family of Grade II winners Vision and Verse and Bourbon Bay. Stopchargingmaria is the 92nd stakes-winner for top class sire Tale of the Cat, whose two year-old daughter She’s a Tiger finished second in the Grade I Breeders Cup Juvenile Filly last weekend.