NEWS
Keertana drives to convincing Glens Falls triumph
Posted: Monday, September 06, 2010 7:55 AM
KEERTANA
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
To view the Glens Falls Handicap, click here.
by Steve Bailey
Keertana made a bold move on the rail in midstretch to take command and drove to a convincing victory in the $100,000 Glens Falls Handicap (G3) on Monday at Saratoga Race Course.
The four-year-old Johar filly won for the third time from six starts this season and picked up her first graded stakes victory since capturing last year’s Regret Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs, a span of 15 months and ten starts.
Keertana raced near the back of the field through six furlongs before moving up steadily in the turn. She ran into traffic and checked at the top of the stretch before finding room on the rail midstretch, and rallying with authority under jockey Jose Lezcano to a 3 ½-length victory.
“I love this filly,” Lezcano said after Keertana covered 1 3/8 miles—a distance a quarter-mile farther than she had ever run—in 2:12.73 on turf rated as firm. “We were way back, then I had to check, and after that I lost my [riding crop]. I said, ‘Oh man, I feel so bad; I’m going to lose this race.’
“I love that my filly was able to win. When I asked her, she kicked it up very well. She had plenty of gas left.”
Chile’s top stayer in 2010 and multiple Group 1 winner in her native country, Casablanca Smile (Chi) was runner-up for the second consecutive start, finishing 1 ¼ lengths in front of four-time Grade 1 winner and 2008 champion turf female Forever Together, who saw her current winless streak stretch to seven starts.
“She was sitting perfectly in the first half of the race,” Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard said of Forever Together, who was sent off as the 0.65-to-1 favorite. “But as they went on, [jockey Julien Leparoux] let her drop farther and farther back, so then she had too much ground to make up.”
Keertana won for the seventh time from 19 starts with five second- and four third-place finishes and $517,771 in earnings.
“Her daddy won at a mile and a half and her mother’s father [Storm Cat] wanted to go a mile, so I figured a mile and three eighths would be perfect,” trainer Tom Proctor said. “She was back a lot farther [than I expected,] but when they went 47 and change, that was pretty good.”
Bred in Kentucky by Barbara Hunter, Keertana is one of four winners from six starters out of the unraced Storm Cat mare Motokiks and is a half sister to Grade 3 winner Snow Top Mountain. Motokiks is a half sister to Italian Group 1 winner Knifebox, multiple Grade 3 winner Parochial and multiple German stakes winner Catoki.
For an Equibase chart, click here.
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of Thoroughbred Times
