La Mehana Set to Make Title Defense in $125,000 Via Borghese

Multiple Graded Winner Racing First Time for New Connections

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Seven weeks after going through the auction ring, Dixiana Farms’ multiple graded-stakes winner La Mehana is set to represent her new connections as the defending champion in Wednesday’s $125,000 Via Borghese at Gulfstream Park.

The 10th running of the Via Borghese for fillies and mares 3 and up, scheduled for 1 3/8 miles on the grass, anchors a special nine-race Christmas Eve program that begins at 12:20 p.m.

Purchased for $500,000 at Keeneland’s November breeding stock sale and moved to trainer Brad Cox, La Mehana can become just the second horse to repeat as winner of the Via Borghese following Always Shopping in 2020 and 2021.

Mehana had four wins and $508,850 in purse earnings from 14 starts since coming to North America last spring and racing for LSU Stables, late trainer Christophe Clement and his son, Miguel after being Group 1-placed in her native France.

The 6-year-old mare was last seen finishing fifth in the 1 3/8-mile Waya (G3) on the Aqueduct turf Oct. 5. La Mehana was sold the following month and soon joined Cox’s South Florida string at Payson Park.

“The race is there [and] it looks like a decent spot. She’s been tuned up and ready to go as far as breezing her and preparing for this race,” Cox said. “We’re going to give her a run.”

La Mehana shows four timed works over Payson’s main track since Thanksgiving, the most recent a half-mile move in 50.40 seconds Dec. 17. She has never raced on dirt, with nine wins and six thirds from 25 turf starts including graded victories in the 2024 Waya and July 27 Glens Falls (G2), the latter going 1 ½ miles.

“We don’t really know that much about her, just what she’s done in regard to her form. I’m actually surprised she works as well as she does on the dirt there at Payson considering she’s a marathon grass horse,” Cox said. “[We’re] excited about it.”

Rated second choice on the morning line at 5-2 and to be ridden first time by Irad Ortiz Jr. from Post 6 in a field of eight, La Mehana is stablemates with millionaire 3-year-old filly Fionn, a Grade 1 winner that was bred by William and Donna Shively of Dixiana Farms.

“Dixiana bred Fionn and now we have this filly. It’s kind of cool to have a couple horses in that division now,” Cox said. “There’s a good series down here for those fillies and mares at those marathon distances.”

The 2-1 program favorite for the Via Borghese is Lawrence Goichman’s British-bred Alluring Angel, most recently a 1 ½-length winner of the 1 3/8-mile Long Island (G3) Nov. 8 on the Aqueduct turf. Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, seeking his first Via Borghese win, she ran third by a length at odds of 33-1 in the Waya and will have Junior Alvarado aboard from Post 4.

Also exiting the Long Island is Newstead Stables’ No Show Sammy Jo (Post 5, 5-1), who has finished second in the race in back-to-back years. Winner of Laurel Park’s 1 1/8-mile All Along in 2024 and 2025, the 5-year-old mare ran behind La Mehana in both the Glens Falls at Saratoga and a 1 3/8-mile optional claiming allowance June 27 on the grass at Aqueduct.

“I’ve had a frustrating year with her and I think partly that might have been my fault for misplacing her a little bit,” trainer Graham Motion said. “She came within a length or so of winning the Long Island two years in a row and was kind of unlucky both times. I think the mile and three eighths is a really good trip for her.”

No Show Sammy Jo has finished second all three times she has attempted the distance of the Via Borghese, a race Motion has already won four times with Romagna Mia (2023), Lisheen (2022), Touriga (2019) and Si Que Es Buena (2018).

“I think now I feel like this is what she wants to do where before, I wasn’t sure,” he said. “The race is competitive. She’s got to run against those horses again, some of them, but I feel very good about running her. She’s done well since she came down to Florida.”

No Show Sammy Jo will be ridden by Jorge Ruiz, who has been up for all three of her works over the turf at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County.

Miller Racing’s Venencia (Post 8, 3-1) comes out of the same sale as La Mehana, fetching $250,000 after winning the 1 ½-mile Dowager (G3) Oct. 19 over a yielding course at Keeneland for previous trainer Brendan Walsh. The 5-year-old mare, now with Saffie Joseph Jr., has placed in three other graded-stakes and won the Forever Together last fall at Aqueduct.

Also entered are Louise Procter (Post 1, 10-1), a last-out winner Oct. 19 for trainer Chad Brown; stakes-placed Madame Mischief (Post 2, 20-1) and Gallant Greta (Post 7, 10-1); and Celestial Express (Post 3, 50-1).

The Via Borghese honors the daughter of Seattle Dancer that won half of her 22 starts for trainer Angel Penna Jr. including Gulfstream’s Suwannee River (G3) in 1994 and the 1994 Diana (G2) at Saratoga.