Maker’s Mark Mile Stakes (Group 1)
CARL Spackler reminded us that he is one of the best turf milers in America in running out a comprehensive winner of the Keeneland Grade 1 feature last Friday.
It was a third Grade 1 win for the son of Lope De Vega and arguably one of his finest performances yet with a dominating four and a quarter-length victory, vindicating the decision to keep him in training for another year. He had last been seen finishing sixth to More Than Looks at Del Mar in November in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
“We just took care of him and figured we would run him another year,” owner/breeder Bob Edwards was quoted by Blood-Horse. Carl Spackler runs under the e5 Racing Thoroughbreds name.
“The family loves him, he’s a fan favourite at Saratoga and Keeneland, we’re just happy to keep running him. That was spectacular. Winning here at Keeneland amongst the best horses in the world and coming off the layoff,” Edwards added.
Sent off 4/5 favourite in a field reduced to seven older horses, Carl Spackler found himself shuffled back into fourth early. Carl Spackler tracked over four lengths behind Northern Invader, before Prat moved the chesnut forward around the three-furlong marker and Carl Spackler quickened impressively to the lead.
Pegasus World Cup Turf runner-up Integration and Grade 1 winner Trikari closed from off the pace but couldn’t get close to the winner.
Integration and Frankie Dettori was second by a length and a half over Trikari.
Apple Blossom Handicap (Grade 1)
OPINIONS differed on how good a performance the Horse of the Year, Thorpedo Anna put up when notching her fourth consecutive victory since a runner-up finish in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga last summer.
The brilliant four-year-old filly was pushed forward from tardy beginning to score a four and a quarter-length victory at Oaklawn Park.
Tracking splits set by Wild Bout Hilary in the mile and a half furlong contest, Thorpedo Anna took over with six furlongs to go and, though she was kept up to her work with a few whip cracks by rider Brian Hernandez Jr, she sped away from five outclassed rivals. Thorpedo Anna gave her rivals between 4-7lb, but her time was slower than allowance horses ran 30 minutes earlier.
Free Like A Girl ran second, just as she had against Thorpedo Anna last time in the Azeri Stakes. Where’s My Ring was a length and a half further back in third.
“She went around the (second) turn with her ears up - she was just gonna kind of cruise from there,” Hernandez said.
Winning trainer Kenny McPeek said: “I wished every horse trainer in America and even jockey could have a horse like her, to be around a horse like her. I mean, I’ve worked all my career to try to find those kind of horses, and she really does make our job easy. She’s not complicated. She loves to eat. She loves to train.”
McPeek has his stable star aiming toward the $1 million Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes on May 2nd, back at Churchill Downs.
“I’ve always believed in racing my horses. I think three weeks (rest) she’ll handle fine. As long as everything’s good with her physically and she comes out of it like we expect, I think you’ll see her at Churchill Downs,” McPeek said.
Suggestions that she might travel to Royal Ascot were dismissed for the moment.
McPeek paid just $40,000 for Thorpedo Anna at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale and her earnings now stand at $4,814,913.
Jenny Wiley Stakes (Grade 1)
SIMON and Ed Crisford enjoyed a big international success in Keeneland when Luis Saez partnered Choisya to a gutsy half-length win in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes.
The Night Of Thunder five-year-old came off two Group 2 wins at Meydan during the winter carnival, her most recent defeating Godolphin’s US Grade 1-winning filly Cinderella’s Dream.
In a field of eight, Choisya faced Resolute Racing’s €1.6 million Arqana purchase, the French graded stakes winner Excellent Truth, who went off favourite.
The race ended with some controversy as many felt that the winner should have been disqualified for interference to Excellent Truth.
Kehoe Beach led as Luis Saez, kept the Rabbah Bloodstock-owned and bred Choisya in a stalking trip along the rail.
Midway through the final bend, Kehoe Beach drifted out, leaving a gap and Saez and Choisya burst through and struck the front as the field turned for home.
Take back
Flavien Prat and Excellent Truth tried to pass on the outside, but was forced to take back sharply when Saez and Choisya drifted into her path.
“I followed the speed and at the top of the stretch I had the rail so I took it. She gave me a good run and a great finish,” Saez said afterwards.
Hampered in her run, Excellent Truth squeezed her way up the rail but couldn’t catch Choisya.
After several minutes, the Keeneland stewards dismissed Prat’s claim of foul and left the result as it was.
“I knew when I got to the top of the stretch I came out a little bit, but I stayed in my lane. She ran a big race,” Saez said.