Chanteline takes smooth win in Smart N Fancy Stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Chanteline didn’t make her first start sprinting on turf until last August when, in her 17th career start, she finished seventh in the Smart N Fancy Stakes at Saratoga.

Chanteline has certainly improved as a turf sprinter over the last year. On Sunday she was a much-the-best, three-length winner of the $100,000 Smart N Fancy Stakes at the Spa.

Sitting an up-close fourth behind ferocious early fractions established by Girls Know Best - the quarter was posted as 20.85 and the half in 43.16 - Chanteline, under Ricardo Santana Jr., took over inside the sixteenth pole and drew off to a handy victory, her third in a listed stakes.

Girls Know Best held second by a head over Morticia.

The race was marred by the fatal breakdown of Bowie, a 4-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon, who appeared to take a bad step and suffered multiple fractures to her left foreleg - including both of her sesamoids - and had to be euthanized on the course. Her jockey, Julien Leparoux, did a phenomenal job to hold onto the filly after being unseated. Leparoux was uninjured.

It took Chanteline three tries sprinting on turf before finally winning the Richard Scherer Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds last December at Fair Grounds. She didn’t get back on the turf again until June, when she rolled to a 2 3/4-length allowance win at Parx Racing. Last time out, she finished second to longshot Ruby Notion in the $200,000 Caress Stakes run over an extremely soft Saratoga turf course.

“She’s gotten real good,” said Scott Blasi, the assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen. “The race at Parx was kind of a breakout race for her. I don’t think she really loved the soft ground the last time and she still ran second. Today, she flew.”

Chanteline, a 6-year-old daughter of Majesticperfection owned by Ten Broeck Farms Inc., covered the 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:00.85 and returned $11.60 as the third choice. She improved her record to 8 for 25 and increased her purse earnings to $524,972.

“She’s done real well up here, her condition’s better than it’s ever been,” Blasi said. “She’s just thrived up here.”

Epping Forest, the 7-2 favorite, was one of three horses affected when Bowie broke down. She finished 8th while Jc’s Shooting Star and Fire Key were also impacted, finishing ninth and 11th respectively.