ARCADIA, Calif.--In a once in a lifetime finish, three horses owned by two men who live just a few mile apart in southern Chester County finished one, two, three in a Grade 1 race at Santa Anita race track in California.

Ambaya (Photo by Benoit Photo)Ambaya, owned and bred by George Strawbridge Jr.'s Augustin Stables, won the G1, $300,000, 1 1/4 mile American Oaks turf race for 3-year-old fillies by 1/2 length.

Cliffs, owned by Roy and Gretchen Jackson's Lael Stables, finished second, and Strawbridges's homebred Will Then placed third, another neck back.

Strawbridge had flown out to California to watch his two homebreds run and was richly rewarded.

Strawbridge has been a top owner and breeder for decades, but his greatest success came during his five decades with Jonathan Sheppard, when he won both flat and steeplechase Eclipse Awards with the two flat Awards being with Forever Together and Informed Decision.

Ambaya, trained by Jonathan Thomas, ran fifth until the final turn in the Oaks, launching a bid at the top of the stretch and digging in late to beat Cliffs on her inside and Will Then on her outside.

 

AMBAYA, a chestnut filly by Ghostzapper out of a Distorted Humor mare, didn't run as a 2-year-old and broke her maiden at first asking at Horseshoe Park on June 12.

She then finished second in an allowance, third in the Christiana Stakes at Delaware Park and, second and fourth in allowance races before winning he Oaks in her first try in a graded stakes.

Cliffs broke her maiden at Saratoga in her third race and then ran second and first in allowance races before finishing second in the Oaks.

Will Then had three wins, including in a maiden race and the G3 Jimmy Durante Stakes in 2024 and the China Doll Stakes in March of 2025.

Following that, she ran third once, fifth three times and sixth once, all in stakes, before running third in the Oaks.