2yo Costa Linda “too good to be true” in debut
Daughter of Anna’s Bandit wins first Laurel baby race
Frank Vespe
May 1, 2026
She’s got a long way to go to live up to Mom’s example. But Costa Linda sure is off to a good start.
Costa Linda, a two-year-old Frosted filly out of the $800,000 earner Anna’s Bandit, overcame an awkward break to run past her overmatched rivals and win Laurel Park’s first two-year-old race of the year Friday by 7 ¾ lengths.
This article contains affiliate links. If you click and buy, we may earn a commission at no extra charge to you.
Pick up reliable and rewarding tickets for major events!
“I was hoping she’d win, but I expected her to be in front,” said winning trainer Jerry Robb. “I mean, she’s very fast out of the gate, but she got slammed and shut off and checked. She learned a lot.”
Breaking slightly outward under Xavier Perez, Costa Linda took a solid bump from Sweet Bourbon Tea to her outside and found herself in last before getting underway. Perez pointed her between rivals, and she, at first reluctantly but then readily, zipped between to run easily past leaders Engage At Will and Rebelka to take over rounding the turn.
In the lane Costa Linda pulled away readily to the victory, stopping the timer in 54.60 seconds for 4 ½ furlongs on a fast main track. Rebelka held third, and Engage At Will was fourth.
Costa Linda paid $3.80 to win as the favorite and topped an exacta that returned $11.80 for a one-dollar wager.
Costa Linda is a homebred for Robb and wife Gina Robb’s No Guts No Glory Farm and is the second foal to race out of Anna’s Bandit, who won 17 of 39 races for the Robbs while earning $806,655. A West Virginia-bred by Maryland sire Great Notion, Anna’s Bandit in 2019 completed the rare West Virginia Breeders’ Classics Cavada-Maryland Million Distaff, winning the two state-restricted events in a span of just seven days.
“We all worked for Anna to give her what she wanted,” said Robb’s assistant Jessica Lindsey. “You didn’t get in her way, and she didn’t get in yours. This filly has really done nothing wrong since she’s come in.”
Costa Linda arrived at today’s race showing three recorded breezes, all from the gate. She also arrived with a stablemate in the gate – well, almost – in the form of The Stork Club. But The Stork Club, another No Guts No Glory homebred whose half-brother, Do It for Michael, won the 2024 Maryland Million Nursery, began bucking soon after coming on the track, lost rider Jeiron Barbosa, and had to be scratched.
Anna’s Bandit’s first foal, by Tapit, a colt named Tartabull whom the Robbs sold as a yearling for $310,000, broke his maiden at Laurel last October before running a close-up third in the Maryland Juvenile Stakes. A younger Tapit colt out of Anna’s Bandit is currently on the Robbs’ farm.
In between breedings to Tapit – who stands for $185,000 – Gina Robb sent Anna’s Bandit to Frosted, a son of Tapit who was much more economical than his pappy.
“I love the neck,” Gina Robb said of her decision to breed to Frosted. “I love the neck, and I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to try to keep this one.’”
That decision was in part validated today, and in the moments after the race, Gina Robb fought back tears while basking in the early May sun.
“[Patrick Nuesch], who broke her in Virginia, he just couldn’t say enough about her,” Gina Robb said. “We didn’t know what we had because we’ve never pressed her in the morning. It’s too good to be true, what she did for all of us.”
Pick up reliable and rewarding tickets for major events!
LATEST NEWS
