Arella Rockstar’s game stretch run carried her to victory in the $200,000 Matron S. (G3) Sunday at Belmont Park and simultaneously gave her sire Astrology his first graded stakes winner.

Astrology is one of just five First-Crop Sires with more than one black type winners, and his three stakes horses ranks second among all freshman sires.

Winner of her debut in a six-furlong race at Saratoga Aug. 31, Arella Rockstar got caught up in a three-way duel for the lead early on in the Matron. After a half-mile in :45.61, it was Arella Rockstar and odds-on favorite Cherry Lodge to decide the outcome. Cherry Lodge gave chase, but could never pass the eventual winner, who stopped the timer in 1:11.68 for the six furlongs on the main track.

“That filly ran so big,” said admiring jockey Luis Saez. “When I got on (her in the paddock), I was thinking, ‘Man, she’s alright.’ When she broke from the gate, she was running. She never gave up. When we came to the stretch, I thought the Pletcher horse [Cherry Lodge] was going to pass me, but I had a lot of horse and when she switched her lead, she gave me another gear and she got it.”

With the win, Arella Rockstar upped her earnings to $150,000 for her owners e Five Racing Thoroughbreds and Magic Cap Stables.

Pedigree Notes from the TDN

Arella Rockstar is the first foal out of the unraced Story Untold (Old Fashioned). The mare is a half-sister to multiple graded stakes winner Feline Story (Tale of the Cat).

Arella Rockstar is the first graded stakes winner for Astrology (A.P. Indy), who won the 2010 GIII Iroquois S. and was third in the following year’s GI Preakness S. The stallion has also been represented by stakes winner Clairvoyant Lady and stakes placed Envoyer.