Fast and Foxy wins again, by a nose

Sharper than she’s ever been, Fast and Foxy ran in the $59,625 Camilla Urso Stakes for the fourth straight year Saturday at Golden Gate Fields and won it for the first time.

Northern California’s best female sprinter, Fast and Foxy came into the race with four straight wins against fillies and mares — a streak interrupted only when she finished third in a race won by Quick and Silver, the best local male sprinter.

Fast and Foxy had to work harder for Saturday’s win than she did for her previous recent ones, which all came by at least 2 lengths. This time, the front-running 7-year-old mare was pressed by BC Z Middleton from her inside for the first quarter-mile of the 6-furlong race.

She disposed of that rival on the turn but needed to set pretty fast fractions (21.93 seconds, 44.45) to do it, and Code Warrior made a strong outside move. Fast and Foxy spurted away at the top of the stretch to open a 2½-length advantage before Turkish Tabby burst onto the scene.

The wire came just in time for Fast and Foxy to win by a nose, with Code Warrior another halflength back in third.

“I know the two horse (BC Z Middleton) showed a lot of speed in her races, so my only choice was to go to the lead,” said jockey Catalino Martinez, who rode Fast and Foxy for the fifth straight race. “I sent her and I knew the other horse didn’t have the speed to stay with me, so I got her to relax and by the three-sixteenths pole I knew the race was over. It was close, but we hung on to win.”

Co-owned by trainer Holly Evans and breeder Joe Daehling, Fast and Foxy has won 15 of 40 career starts, with all the victories coming in 34 races at Golden Gate Fields, and she has earned $437,328.

“She just never stops, she just keeps going,” Evans said. “They hook her, she keeps going. They finish, she keeps going. She’s just tough. I’m so lucky to have a horse like that because so many people never get a good one.” Briefly: The first race was declared “no contest” after King’s Palace broke down while on the lead going into the second turn. The stewards ruled that all four of King’s Palace’s opponents were impeded. … Malagacy, making his first appearance in a stakes event and his first around two turns, won the Grade 2, $900,000 Rebel Stakes by 2 lengths Saturday at Oaklawn Park to put himself into the Kentucky Derby picture. … Vale Dori stretched her winning streak to five by taking the Grade 1, $400,000 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita.