Army Wife looked like a major player in the Grade 3, $225,000 Iowa Oaks even before jockey Joel Rosario gave her a perfect trip. Good fortune in her sails, Army Wife cruised to a 3 ¾-length win over longshot Shesa Mystery.

Pauline’s Pearl, the 17-10 second choice, rallied mildly for third, beaten 2 ½ lengths by Shesa Mystery, who easily got the better of inside pace-setting Sister Annie. Sister Annie, Shesa Mystery prompting, went very manageable fractions of 24.47 and 48.18, but Sister Annie was done at the quarter pole as Army Wife tracked intently, sitting third while saving ground after breaking from post 1. Rosario, doing the obvious, tipped his mount three deep approaching the homestretch and Army Wife easily collared Shesa Mystery, validating her even-money favoritism. She paid $4, running 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.10.

Trained by Mike Maker for Three Diamonds Farm, Army Wife might have earned a step up in class Friday winning her second straight graded dirt-route stakes. A maiden winner from five starts at age 2, Army Wife has developed as a 3-year-old. She won a one-turn Gulfstream first-level mile allowance in her 2021 debut and might still have been a race away from her best when third, beaten more than six lengths by the high-level Search Results, in the nine-furlong Gazelle on April 3 at Aqueduct. Army Wife, a daughter of Declaration of War and the Arch mare, Tread, ran out a defined winner of the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan, and closing into a much slower pace Friday she appeared to run just as well.

“She performed really well today like she did last time,” Rosario said. “It looks like she’s getting better.”