Julie loves turf

Julie's Love showed her liking for the turf when defeating Dealbata (Dubawi) by a half-length to take the Listed De La Rose Stakes over 1600m on turf at Saratoga on Saturday and become the 6th Stakes winner for Ad Valorem.

Twice Group-placed in Germany last season, the 4yo Julie's Love raced in third place for most of the race, coming with her challenge in the home straight to reach the lead 100m out and then hold the late flourish from the race favourite, Dealbata.

This is the third win from four starts in North America for Julie's Love, who is raced by Andreas Jacobs and now trained by Graham Motion, who said afterwards, "Today, she ran by far the most professional race that she's run and she behaved so well," Motion said. "She's quite a nervous filly, and everything went really smoothly. Julien [Leparoux] gave her a great trip and it couldn't have set up any better."

Julie's Love is out of the Mark Of Esteem mare Skimmia and was bred in Great Britain by T E Pocock.

Champion European 2yo and miler Ad Valorem stands at Darley Kelvinside where his fee in 2012 is $16,500 incl GST.