Deceptive Vision narrowly prevails in Doubledogdare

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Deceptive Vision, making her first start in six months, was both lucky and good Friday in posting a narrow victory in the Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare Stakes at Keeneland.

Kept out of trouble by John Velazquez throughout the 1 1/16-mile race, Deceptive Vision held off Lunar Surge to win by a head in a closely bunched finish. Lunar Surge was blocked when in tight quarters along the rail in the run down the short stretch, probably costing her the race.

Bred and owned by Canadian powerhouse Sam-Son Farm, Deceptive Vision returned $4.60 as the favorite in a field of seven fillies and mares after finishing in 1:44.34 over a fast track. Blue Violet was third and Pretty Fancy was fourth.

Deceptive Vision is “a lovely filly with a lot of talent,” said winning trainer Malcolm Pierce. “She made me sweat a little today but I’m happy with the outcome.”

A 5-year-old mare from the second-to-last crop of the great sire A.P. Indy, Deceptive Vision now has won 5 of 9 starts and is unbeaten in three tries on dirt. Last year in the series of top turf stakes at Woodbine, she was beaten a nose in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly, won the Grade 2 Canadian, and finished third in what had been her most recent start, the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor on Oct. 18.

Pierce said he opted to run Deceptive Vision in the Doubledogdare instead of the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on turf last weekend “because this looked like it’d be a little easier. She handles dirt just as well as she handles the turf, so we’ve got some options from here.”

On a warm and mostly cloudy afternoon, and before an ontrack crowd of 17,065, Deceptive Vision and Blue Violet took over for front-running Twenty in One leaving the final turn, with Deceptive Vision forging to a short lead in deep stretch.

Lunar Surge, the 9-2 fourth choice under Corey Lanerie, was full of momentum with a furlong to run but was temporarily shut off by Blue Violet before resuming a rally that fell just short.

Velazquez said Deceptive Vision “wasn’t really paying attention” and was “kind of waiting on the others. She never saw the horse on the inside [Lunar Surge].”

After the top four came Tiz Windy, Twenty in One, and Liberated.

The Doubledogdare lost its 2-1 morning-line favorite when My Miss Sophia was scratched early in the day. Runner-up to Untapable in the 2014 Kentucky Oaks, the 4-year-old Don’t Tell Sophia was scheduled to make her first start in the care of trainer Bill Mott after having been sold for $2.15 million at Fasig-Tipton last November to the Alpha Delta Stables of John Clay. However, Mott assistant Rudolphe Brisset said a decision was made to wait instead for the Grade 1 La Troienne on the May 1 Kentucky Oaks undercard.

Handmade also was an early scratch.

The $2 exacta (3-1) paid $16.60, the $1 trifecta (3-1-5) returned $28.80, and the 10-cent superfecta (3-1-5-6) was worth $11.48.