Amazing Buy Cashes In at Laurel

3-Year-Old Filly From New York Wins Wide Country Stakes by a Nose

Ernie Paragallo didn't hold back after his filly Amazing Buy won by a nose yesterday in the $50,000 Wide Country Stakes at Laurel Park.

"She's the best filly I've ever owned," said Paragallo, who raced 1999 champion sprinter Artax and Unbridled's Song, winner of the 1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. "She's as good as any 3-year-old in America right now."

Paragallo had mulled a cross-country trip for Amazing Buy from her New York base to run in the Grade I $250,000 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita, but opted instead for a van ride down Interstate 95 for the one-mile Wide Country Stakes.

After breaking her maiden by 10 1/2 lengths and then winning the Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct in her most recent start, Amazing Buy was bet down to odds of 2-5 in the field of six. Taking up the challenge were the top fillies in Maryland -- Maryland Juvenile Filly Championship winner Dixie Talking, runner-up Take a Check and the promising Rutledge Ballado, racing for trainer Michael Dickinson.

For the first half-mile, Amazing Buy dogged leader Dixie Talking, running under a snug hold by jockey Norberto Arroyo Jr. With three-sixteenths of a mile to go, Arroyo turned her loose and Amazing Buy opened up by four lengths.

Since its reconstruction, Laurel Park has employed two finish lines, using the one far down toward the clubhouse turn for one-turn miles. At times, the stretch run appears endless, and Amazing Buy's long lead steadily diminished in the unfurling straightaway as Take a Check slowly gathered momentum.

"It surprised her," trainer Jennifer Pedersen said. "But she's got a lot of class."

"Down the lane, she fought all the way," Arroyo said. "I thought I was going to hang on, and she gave me those extra two or three jumps."

Amazing Buy won by a neck in 1 minute 40.70 seconds, paying $2.80 to win.

Paragallo, who lives in Lloyds Neck, N.Y., paid $350,000 for the horse at an auction last year and then babied her because she was overweight and a ravenous eater. Paragallo's 5-year-old daughter Valerie nicknamed the filly "Miss Piggy," and Pedersen was forced to go easy on her until she finally worked her way into shape. "She went on the Jenny Craig diet," Pedersen joked, adding that many long gallops contributed to her fitness.

The first leg of the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks futures bets were offered over the weekend, and Amazing Buy wasn't among the Oaks betting interests. Paragallo, nevertheless, has the prestigious race, run the day before Derby at Churchill Downs, in his sights.

Asked about not being allowed to wager a futures bet on his horse, Paragallo just smiled and said, "Just go to Vegas."

Racing Notes: John Gaines, the influential Kentucky breeder who put together the Breeders' Cup program, died Friday at age 76 . . . Scipion, a $1.9 million son of A.P. Indy who was considered an underachiever as a 2-year-old, came from far back to win the Grade III Risen Star Stakes for 3-year-olds at odds of 10-1 in New Orleans.