Ayra Stark hangs on this time for gate-to-wire win in Keertana
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They ran her down in the Florence Stakes at Turfway Park, and they ran her down in the Christophe Clement, and the Orchid Stakes at Gulfstream Park, but Saturday at Churchill Downs, Ayra Stark ran away from everyone on the way to a decisive victory in the $250,000 Keertana Stakes.
Lone speed in the Keertana, a 1 1/2-mile, three-turn grass race, Ayra Stark and jockey Jose Ortiz went right to the front and dictated tempo. Ayra Stark kicked clear in upper stretch and took a lead to the furlong grounds – but connections had seen this movie before.
In the Florence, run over Turfway’s synthetic surface, Ayra Stark pressed the pace and took over after turning for home, but the good mare Speed Shopper passed her late and won by a half-length. The Clement, on Jan. 24 over 1 1/2 miles on the Gulfstream grass course, played out similarly: Ayra Stark had a half-length lead at the stretch call, but even after making an easy lead there, she proved no match late for Speed Shopper. Her trip March 28 in the Orchid, another 1 1/2-mile grass race, turned out tougher than in the Clement, but once again, Ayra Stark led late and came up short.
Trainer Horacio de Paz nonetheless kept the faith that Ayra Stark could stay 12 furlongs, and the mare validated that belief Saturday, Ortiz taking the mount for the first time since Ayra Stark’s most recent win, a two-other-than allowance last fall at Keeneland.
Ignacio Correas trained Ayra Stark at the time, and even before Ayra Stark made her North American debut, Correas mentioned the high hopes he had for this horse. She’d campaigned on dirt in Argentina and made her first start for Correas on dirt – and flopped, all but eased about a year ago at Churchill.
A switch to turf put Ayra Stark on the right track, and by the end of her 2025 campaign, when Correas retired to his native Argentina, Ayra Stark looked ready to win a stakes race. It took four starts for de Paz to find the right one, and the Keertana was it.
Ayra Stark, racing over a “good” grass course, went her opening half mile in 49.94, got a mile in 1:40.50, and ran her final quarter mile faster than her first five, coming home in 23.34 for a clocking of 2:27.89.
“It’s not soft, soft, but its got some give to it,” Ortiz said of the Churchill course, which had taken a lot of rain over the previous two days. “She handled it very well. It looked on paper like there was no other speed. My plan was to break good and take command of the race early – she relaxed well and she finished very well today.”
Venencia, who does her best work on softer courses, finished second, 2 3/4 lengths behind the winner and a neck in front of Way to Be Marie. Second choice Golden Sunshine got a sweet pocket trip but couldn’t muster the acceleration to get through a gap at the three-sixteenths marker and faded to fourth.
Sultana, 3-1 on the morning line, was scratched after a regulatory veterinarian deemed her unsound.
The Keertana marked the first Churchill stakes success and only the second winner at the track from 22 runners for de Paz, who trains Ayra Stark for Haymarket Farm. A 6-year-old bred on Southern Hemisphere time, Ayra Stark is by Cosmic Trigger out of Delfia, by Exchange Rate – and in the Keertana, nobody came close to catching her.
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