HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Going into Saturday’s Grade 2, $215,000 Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. was expecting his filly The Queens M G to improve off of her third-place finish in the Forward Gal Stakes run here last month. He just wasn’t sure if that would be good enough to beat favored La Cara, who was coming off a dominant victory in the Suncoast Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs three weeks ago. The Queens M G did improve, and her performance was more than good enough to beat La Cara. With jockey Irad Ortiz aboard, the Queens M G beat second-place La Cara by 2 3/4 lengths, putting herself on the Kentucky Oaks trail. Despite racing on the inside part of a main track that seemed to favor outside runners and making a bit of a premature move, The Queens M G ran away from La Cara in the final furlong to win the Davona Dale. La Cara held off Ballerina d’Oro by a nose for second. It was 5 1/2 lengths back to Madeline’s Promise in fourth. Frida finished last. My Denysse and Quinn’s Promise both scratched. With the race scratched down to five runners, only 75 percent of the scheduled qualifying points to the May 2 Kentucky Oaks were awarded. Thus, The Queens M G earns 37.5 points, which gives her 43.5 total points. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now. The Queens M G had won three stakes early in her 2-year-old season before tailing off in her last two starts. Joseph deduced that her third-place finish in the Forward Gal was a result of her not being totally fit after being given a month break. “Her last race was very, very good. I thought she would move forward huge. I didn’t know if she’d move forward enough to win it,” Joseph said. “But I thought how she ran last time gave me confidence that she’d move forward from 2 to 3.” In the Davona Dale, the five-horse field was largely bunched together down the backstretch, with Madeline’s Promise on the lead, La Cara chasing from the outside, and The Queens M G doing the same from the inside. After five-sixteenths, La Cara moved to the lead and Ortiz, knowing that his was the horse to beat, made his move a bit earlier than he wanted. The two ran together until above the eighth pole, when The Queens M G began to open up and clear. The Queens M G, a daughter of Thousand Words owned by C2 Racing Stable and Mathis Stable, covered the mile in 1:37.85, returned $5.80, and tied a career-best Beyer Speed Figure of 80. “Going into the turn, I saw La Cara outside of me. I though it was a little too early for my filly. Last time, I made a premature move and she hung,” Ortiz said. “I have the space inside, I did not want to wait and go around, so I said, ‘All right, it’s probably a little early, but I have the horse to beat outside of me. Let’s go from here.’ And she kept responding." Joseph praised Ortiz for his ride on The Queens M G. “That was a top-class ride. Not many riders could produce that kind of ride,” Joseph said. “Tactically, at every spot, he made the right decision.” Casse aid before the Davona Dale that he expected La Cara to regress running back three weeks after a blowout six-length win in the Suncoast at Tampa Bay Downs. He wanted to use it as a prep for the Grade 1 Ashland at Keenland on April 4.  “She ran hard that last start,” Casse said. “I said we expected her to regress and we saw that, but now she’s supposed to go the other direction, so we’ll see.” La Cara earned 18.5 points and now has 51.5 towards the Kentucky Oaks. Joseph said that The Queens M G will likely make her next start in the Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 29. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.