The Keertana
1 1/2 Mile Turf Stake Purse $160.000 Filly & Mare 4 Year Olds And Up.
1st Made The Choice High First Flight Stable Gaffalione T
Well the most important thing in these small fields is not to lead and not to be last because they all look very similar and 90% of the winners seem to be coming from that close stalk/midpack position. The second most important thing at the moment is pace and with no-one really taking the gamble to go for it the first half of this race was run so slowly that i managed to watch some paint dry. So the being within a length of the lead was also vital and this horse fitted in perfectly as she stalked a slow pace and with the difference in class between her and the only other one with a chance the result was on the cards very early on. In the end she won by two very easy lengths which was impressive but i still feel her biggest barrier to winning more races at this level will be her ability to run faster early on as even i could’ve kept up with todays early pace.
Congrats to the owner who will be pleased this consistent sort finally managed to find a good purse.
2nd Our Corrupt Media Maletto Landeros C
On the repetitive nature of these small fields it was always going to be between this one and the winner as this four year old sat in third which was the other position the winner was likely to come from. In the end though the class difference was obvious and whilst this was a good effort considering she was running in free track claimers in April one doesn’t feel that she is ready to take on the big time just yet.
3rd Flesh And Blood Night Rider Stables Geroux F
Well she was the likely leader as she was the only one with proven early pace but as soon as she made the lead despite the horribly slow early sectionals she was likely to weaken and get over taken. Sure enough the scenario we see so often repeated in these small fields played out and she ended up third.
4th Mag Ol Greyfriars Stable Albarado R J
I am really not sure what to say about this performance. Eight lengths back after a 50 second first half made it impossible for her to win and even if she was hating her first ever start on turf i can’t see how she ran that slow. Sure she is a deep closer but i can’t imagine how any AI with the word intelligence in it would allow her to run so slowly early on so i am totally confused by this effort. It was so bad that you just can’t blame the surface alone, it would be tough to blame the pace as she never really made any ground at all at the end of 12 furlongs so we can only assume that at four after being beaten a total of 20 lengths in her last two races she should be retired to stud immediately. But wait………recently i wrote about a horse with two similar runs that went out and won the Preakness so just maybe there is a way back for her. I guess only time will tell.
Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded
