Sweetlalabye became a multiple stakes winner for her sire Sweetsouthernsaint on Oct. 17th when the 2-year-old filly captured her second FSS stakes, winning the $400,000 My Dear Girl S. – the final leg of the 2-year-old series at Calder. Sweetlalabye also won the first leg – the Desert Vixen S., and she fell just a neck short of the sweep when second in the Susan’s Girl S.

Sweetlalabye was always in close contact in the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl before taking charge turning for home and opening up to a decisive three-length win on the wire. The final time was 1:49.42 over a fast local main track.

“I felt I had enough horse to win the race the whole way around the track,” said jockey Luis Saez.

Trained by Emanuel Tortora, the chestnut filly won the $100,000 Desert Vixen on August 8th and returned to finish a narrow second in the $150,000 Susan’s Girl three weeks later on August 29th after having to steady sharply down the backstretch. Her victory Saturday gave her wins in two of the three Florida Stallion Stakes series, and it moved her earnings to $363,700 for owners and breeders Jacqueline Tortora and Toni and Richard Ancona.

“She had trouble twice in her last race and was a little too far back anyhow. Today, they (the others) were the ones in trouble,” said Manny Tortora. “She's a good filly. I was confident all along.”

A Florida-bred out of the Gold Meridian mare Nandys Gold, Sweetlalabye owns a record of three wins and a second from six starts.