NEW ORLEANS - Tarifa is turning into a terrific filly – despite her efforts at self-sabotage. After winning the Rachel Alexandra Stakes last month in her stakes debut, Tarifa took the measure of pacesetting Our Pretty Woman at the eighth pole and battled hard to win the Grade 2, $400,000 Fair Grounds Oaks by three quarters of a length on Saturday. That Tarifa ran doggedly through the wire while getting her final 2 1/2 furlongs in a solid 30.74 is a tribute to the breadth of her talent. Most horses who had pulled as hard as Tarifa into the first turn and down the backstretch would have been cooked.  Tarifa just is a hot horse, at least out on the racetrack. She breaks off for her morning works like a lion pouncing on an antelope, only barely assenting to a rating hold. Flavien Prat rode her in the Rachel Alexandra and said that after initially trying to get rank, Tarifa settled on the turn. Not Saturday. As Our Pretty Woman crossed in front of her to take the lead into the bend, Tarifa wanted to get it on.  :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match + FREE All Access PPs! Join DRF Bets. “This time she wanted to get keen. She was a little tough,” Prat said.  In her works and in her races, Tarifa eventually relaxes at least moderately. In the Fair Grounds Oaks, she never totally switched off, her mouth still agape from pulling on the bit going to the five-furlong marker. Yet Tarifa had plenty of run when Prat asked her to engage the leader at about the five-sixteenths pole. Our Pretty Woman responded when challenged, but Tarifa poked her head in front at the furlong grounds and edged clear to the finish.  Tarifa ($5 as the favorite) ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in 1:43.57, the fourth-fastest Oaks since 2000. The Fair Grounds dirt surface played quick Saturday, though not radically so, and Tarifa initally was given a strong 95 Beyer Speed Figure. A Godolphin homebred by Bernardini out of Kite Beach, by Awesome Again, Tarifa is trained by Brad Cox. The filly won her debut, lost her second start, and now has four wins from five races.  The top two were much the best, V V’s Dream winning a war of attrition to run third, 3 1/4 lengths out of second. Nearly six lengths behind her in fourth came Accommodate Eva, with Intricate, favored for much of the betting before going off the strong 2-1 second choice, a distant fifth. Intricate appeared poised to turn the tables on Tarifa after finishing second to her in the Rachel Alexandra, Intricate’s 3-year-old bow. Instead, she went backward.  “She put us in a good spot, she was traveling well, but going into the second turn, I asked her to go, and I just couldn’t keep up at that point,” jockey Tyler Gaffalione said.  Midsummer March finished last of six. Alpine Princess and Lucy Got Game were scratched.  Our Pretty Woman, racing for just the third time, starting on her first fast track, and making her stakes debut ran well in defeat after setting wind-influenced splits of 23.84 and 47.93.  “She fought for me. She tried to come back on that horse,” jockey Joel Rosario said. "Hopefully she’s going forward.”  Five of the six runners earned qualifying points toward the Kentucky Oaks, distributed 100, 50, 25, 15, and 10. The top two definitely will get into the Oaks should it overfill, but as much as Tarifa has done in New Orleans this winter, she might need to improve her approach to win the Oaks.  “She’s still learning to settle. She stays on and has a pedigree to keep going,” Cox said. “We’ve got six weeks. We’ll regroup and see how’s she’s taken it. She’s going to have to settle more, the larger field, bigger crowd. She’s got some stuff to work on.”  If she figures out how to stop being a tough horse to handle, Tarifa will be a tough horse to beat.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.