Richard Migliore looks back at the running of the 1991 Mother Goose..
In the race that Leroy Jolley called "the Mother of all Gooses," his champion filly Meadow Star withstood a final furious challenge from the glamorous new star Lite Light and won the Mother Goose Stakes yesterday by the dramatically slender margin of her nose.
It was a sensational duel through the homestretch between the two prima donnas of the filly class of 3-year-olds, and they fought it so tightly that it took the placing judges six minutes to report who had won the photo finish.
They decided it was Meadow Star, the gentle little filly, officially by a nose, visually by an eyebrow or so. But whatever separated them after a mile and an eighth of textbook racing, the two fillies supplied an electrifying close to Belmont Park's weekend of theatrical racing, 24 hours after Hansel withstood Strike the Gold to win the Belmont Stakes by a head in a duel between the best of the colts. Sweat, Then Blood.
But Lite Light paid a price for her performance. Back in the barn, she was found to be bleeding slightly, and was booked for a trip home to California tomorrow to pursue her career there. Thus, her chances of a return match with Meadow Star faded. In her last six races, she has run with the medication Lasix, which is used to control bleeding but is banned in New York.
"She bled a little," said her trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer. "On a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 3. We had been discussing the Coaching Club American Oaks here, but the best interests of the filly dictate that we go back home. But we got beat fair and square."
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