Zimmerman timed her break for the front perfectly, twirling his whip as he came around the turn into the home stretch.

“That’s the way she’s run,” said Tony Mathiason who assists trainer Steven Asmussen at Arlington Park. “I was concerned of the speed but she brought her game to the track today.”

Before the race, Calabrese’s trainer Wayne Catalano said he thought the mile and an eighth was a question for Dreaming of Liz, as it was a stretch for the filly. He felt she needed to pull out to a good lead.

After the race, jockey Earlie Fires told Catalano that the break did her in. She tried to come back once passed by didn’t quite have enough to take down Sky Mom.

“She ran a good race,” Fires said. “She just got outrun there at the end of the race.”

Stark, out of Lexington, Ky., was excited by her horse’s performance in her first race at Arlington Park.

“She’s just got so much heart,” Stark said, after the filly’s sixth lifetime victory, and third of 2008. “Everything with that filly is cake.”

Most recently, Sky Mom finished second, one length behind Storm Mesa at the Grade III Iowa Oaks. Her last win came March 16, when she won the WinStar Oaks by 4 and three-quarter lengths.

The post time favorite, Day of Victory, made the board, finishing fourth. Jockey Rene Douglas felt the heat might have been a reason for the loss.

“Going in the gate she was already a little washed out, but I also think she’d have run a little better if there was a little more pace in front of her to run at,” Douglas said.

Sky Mom, the daughter of Maria’s Mon, paid $6.40, $3.40 and $3.20. Dreaming of Liz paid $4.20 and $3.40 for her place finish. Apple Martini showed with a strong run on the outside at the end, paying $4.40.