-photo by Jack Coady/Coady Photography

(March 24, 2007) - Annie Savoy returned to the winner’s circle tonight in the $45,000 Mission Stakes for Texas-bred fillies and mares. The 4-year-old filly is owned and bred by Hal Browning of Dallas and trained by Kari Craddock.

The daughter of Langfuhr won the 2005 Bara Lass Stakes on Texas Champions Day and the $40,000 Ponca City Stakes last August at Remington Park. Rider Paul Nolan sat patiently as multiple-stakes winner Sweet Idea went to the lead and was challenged by Govenors Trixie. He found an opening on the rail and urged the dark bay filly to victory, covering tonight’s distance of seven furlongs in 1:24.49.

“Kari’s orders were simple,” said Nolan. “Let the filly tell you what she wants you to do. She broke well and I was able to settle her and she sat there nicely for me. I was behind a wall of horses, but I saw that Iram (Diego aboard Govenors Trixie) was going the fastest of all of them. My filly just dug in so well. She’s a fighter.”

Craddock, who was at Oaklawn Park, relied on trainer Mindy Willis to saddle for her.

“She loves this filly,” said Willis. “She just told me to leg Paul up and go win the race.”

“This means a lot,” said owner/breeder Browning. “I want to thank Mindy and Paul for a great job. We’re excited to be here; she ran a great race and we are tickled to death.”

Don Simington was closing gamely aboard Olmosta, a 4-year-old filly conditioned by Andy Konkoly. She displayed that same nice kick in her allowance victory here on March 4.

“I’m real happy with her,” said Simington. “She gave me a big, big effort, same as last time. I set just off the pace with her, and she made the run when I called on her. She was giving me all she had. I might have needed a little more room (at the end), but I don’t know if more distance would have helped anymore or not. We may not ever have got to it. We had a perfect trip, and everything was great.”

Sweet Idea, who had won the $75,000 Martanza Stakes on December 2 and the $25,000 Space City Stakes on December 16, was sent off as the favorite, but could not sustain her lead and finished fourth. Quincy Hamilton rode for trainer Bret Calhoun.

“It just wasn’t her night,” said Hamilton, who won the riding title here for the past two years. “She broke well, but when they came to her, she just didn’t have her usual kick.”

Annie Savoy ($8.00) won $27,000 for tonight’s effort. Govenors Trixie, Sweet Idea, La Raine of Terror, Slewpy’s Star, Crescent Lake and Proud n’ Wild completed the order of finish.