High Cotton's top 2-year-old filly of 2016 R Angel Katelyn scored her second straight stakes victory on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs with a emphatic 3 1/2-length tally in the $100,000 Sandpiper S.

Coming off a stern test in the $100,000 Juvenile Fillies Sprint last month at Gulfstream Park West, R Angel Katelyn stepped up her game in the six-furlong Sandpiper, going right to the front out of the gate. She sped through a half-mile in :45.24 seconds with a 2 1/2-length lead and never looked back, ultimately getting the distance in a solid 1:10.67 over a fast main track (VIDEO).

“He (jockey Edwin Gonzalez) said he had a lot of horse under him and wasn’t really worried at any point of the race,” winning trainer Gerald Bennett said. “I told him to just let her run her race and sit patient, and she’s got the game down pretty well for such a young horse. He played it as it came up, and she took off when he asked her.” 

The winner upped her lifetime record to 3-for-4 and has now earned $147,120.

R Angel Katelyn is owned by the Averill Racing outfit of Bradenton, Fla., resident Rich Averill, CCF Racing Stable (Clark Freeman) and Roger Smith’s K Lauren Racing. The filly is named for Smith’s 22-year-old daughter. 

With Kantharos recently being moved to Kentucky, High Cotton is the leading active Florida sire of 2016 with $3.3 million in progeny earnings, five stakes winners, and 87 overall winners to date. His 2017 fee was recently announced at $4,000 live foal.