NEWS
Royal Card first winner for sire Chapel Royal
Posted: Saturday, April 19, 2008 6:59 PM
After unseating jockey John Velazquez and running off in the post parade, Royal Card earned a 1 3/4-length win on Saturday at Keeneland Race Course to become the first career winner for Grade 2 winner Chapel Royal.
A dark bay or brown filly out of the De Niro mare Showmethegreencard, Florida-bred Royal Card is owned by Gabriel Duignan’s Elite Racing Partners and covered 4 1/2 furlongs in :50.93 on Keeneland’s Polytrack surface.
A seven-year-old Montbrook horse out of the Cutlass mare Cut Class Leanne, Chapel Royal stands at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, for $10,000. He has 173 two-year-olds in his first crop.
Chapel Royal won three of eight career starts, including back-to-back wins as a two-year-old in the Flash Stakes (G3) at Belmont Park and the Sanford Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course. He also posted consecutive runner-up finishes in the ’03 Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga and Champagne Stakes (G1) at Belmont prior to closing out his two-year-old campaign with a third-place finish in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). He concluded his racing career in ’04 with $495,571 in lifetime earnings.
