Mark Villa rode Pick Me Up to a wire-to-wire win in Saturday’s $40,000 Aspen Cup Handicap for 3-year-old fillies at Ruidoso Downs.

Prepped by Bart Hone for owner R. Legacy Racing Inc. of Layton, Utah, Pick Me Up covered 6 furlongs in 1:10.39 after setting fractions of :23.47 and :46.27. The filly by Yankee Gentleman’s margin of victory was three lengths from Badgett’s Royal, and she returned a $2.80 win mutuel as the 2-5 favorite.

A homebred, Pick Me Up is one of 94 winners from 155 starters sired by Yankee Gentleman, an 11-year-old Storm Cat stallion who won the 2003 Pirate’s Bounty Handicap (R) at Del Mar. Bred in Kentucky by Mr. and Mrs. Martin J. Wygod, Yankee Gentleman has sired eight stakes winners and the earners of more than $6.6 million from four crops, including Golden Yank, a 5-year-old gelding whose four stakes wins include the ’08 Zia Park Derby. The stallion stands for a $5,000 fee at La Mesa Stallions at Carencro, Louisiana.

Pick Me Up’s dam, Truely It Is, is a winning 15-year-old daughter of the Raja Baba stallion Is It True who has produced five winners from as many starters. The filly’s second dam, the Crimson Falcon mare Fern Creek, won the 1985 Dahlia Handicap at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky.

Pick Me Up traces back to her third dam, Crimson Belle, a 1964 foal and daughter of the Man O’ War stallion War Relic. Crimson Belle foaled three blacktype winners from 11 starters, including the late Belle’s Ruler, a colt by Whitesburg who won the 1980 Evansville Courier Handicap at Ellis Park and ran second in that season’s $56,075 Clark Handicap (G3) at Churchill Downs.

Pick Me Up has won two of three races, and the $24,400 winner’s share of the Aspen Cup purse pushed her earnings to $36,040. The filly broke her maiden in her career debut at Sunland Park on February 12, winning a 6-furlong $10,000 maiden claimer by 1 ¼ lengths.

If I Had A Bull and Heriberta completed the order of finish.

A bay daughter of Royal Cat, Badgett’s Royal banked $8,800 for her owners, Stable HMA of Tempe, Arizona, who claimed her for $12,500 at Golden Gate Fields on February 7. Earlier this spring, Badgett’s Royal broke her maiden for an $8,000 tag at SunRay Park, as the filly won a 4 ½-furlong sprint by seven lengths as the 1-2 favorite.

If I Had A Bull is a New Mexico-bred daughter of In Excessive Bull racing for BLM Racing Stable Inc. of El Paso, Texas. An earner of $49,594 from two wins in 10 outs, If I Had A Bull ran fourth, 2 ¼ lengths behind winner Favorite Flag, in the 1 1/16-mile, $125,000 New Mexico Breeders’ Oaks (R) at Sunland Park on March 28.