Grade 1-winner Viadera makes long-awaited 5-year-old debut in $120K Fasig-Tipton De La Rose

Juddmonte homebred Viadera returns to action following an eight-month hiatus to defend her title in Sunday’s 18th running of the $120,000 Fasig-Tipton De La Rose for older fillies and mares going one mile over the inner turf.

Trained by Chad Brown, Viadera has not raced since capturing the Grade 1 Matriarch on November 29 at Del Mar. The 5-year-old daughter of Bated Breath will attempt to become the first back-to-back De La Rose winner.

Unbeaten in five starts at one mile, Viadera previously raced in Europe, where she won twice at the distance before moving to Brown’s stable last year.

Following her North American debut, where she was a distant fourth in the Grade 3 Intercontinental at Belmont Park, Viadera won the 2020 De La Rose when chasing a slow pace and collaring stablemate Noor Sahara to win by a neck, leading a Brown-trained exacta.

“It’s been a little frustrating with her getting such a late start to the year, she’s been ready to run for quite a while,” Brown said. “Her race was rained off the turf a month ago. Here we are getting started a little later to the races, but hopefully she has a good second half of the season.”