Porte Bonheur won Saturday’s sixth running of the Grade 3, $110,100 Victory Ride for three-year-old fillies at six furlongs, but favored Indyanne may be the ultimate beneficiary, as the experience proved her toughness.

In each of her six previous races, Indyanne had everything her own way, winning by an average of better than seven lengths. This time, however, she broke a bit slowly and jockey Russell Baze opted to send her through a wide open path on the rail, where she set fractions of 22.13, 45.00 and 56.89 on the glib main track. Carrying 123 pounds and spotting Porte Bonheur three pounds, Indyanne fought on, losing by a half-length in 1:09.51.

“We should have won it,” said Indyanne’s jockey Russell Baze. “My filly was standing good in there (the gate), but she wasn’t standing quite as good as I would have liked her. It was ‘go’ time and I didn’t have enough time to re-adjust her footing in there. She’s always been a little bit slow leaving the starting gate, and today was just a little bit more so.”

Still, Porte Bonheur, a Hennessy filly, got the job done. It was the first graded stakes win of her career, and he has now won four of seven career starts.

“I have no complaints,” said trainer David Duggan, whose charge returned $24.60. “I’m very happy. I’ll take it any day of the week. It’s better than losing. She has proven that she is legitimate. I was nervous when I saw Indyanne still there. I knew we were doing good, but I was afraid of her.”

Duggan said he would consider the Grade 2, $150,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap at six and a half furlongs at Belmont Park on September 20 for Port Bonheur’s next start.

“I’m not going to take anything away from the winner – she ran a heck of a race,” said Indyanne’s trainer Greg Gilchrist. “But I think the start cost us a neck. Russell (Baze, jockey) had a choice: he could sit there, but the fence opened up and he went ahead and let her run. That’s just horse racing. That’s the way it comes up sometimes.”