Kadira follows in talented footsteps
CINCINNATI - Owner Carl Pollard and trainer David Vance engineered quite a coup seven years ago when Caressing won the Bassinet Stakes, then went on to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at 45-1.
Pollard and Vance didn't come close to committing another promising filly, Kadira, to the Oct. 27 BC Juvenile Fillies, but the filly did her part of completing the first half of that unusual sweep Saturday when she prevailed by a nose after a stretch-long duel with Dreabons Legacy in the $100,000 Bassinet at River Downs.
"Oh, I don't even know if we can even think about running her" in the Breeders' Cup, Vance said moments after Kadira's number was posted first on the River tote board. "She's got some pedigree, but I don't know if she's the same kind of filly. I said before the race we'd talk about it after we run her back in the Kentucky Cup."
Kadira will point for the Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies on Sept. 29 at Turfway Park.
Kadira, ridden by Larry Melancon, had a perfect trip in the six-furlong Bassinet as the fourth choice in a field of seven 2-year-old fillies. Laying third, just behind Hurricane Bernie and Dreabons Legacy, she made her move on the far turn, and with a quarter-mile to go, she and Dreabons Legacy were locked in a battle that would take them to the wire.
"We just got beat," said Steve Flint, who trains Dreabons Legacy. "She did everything right. David Vance's filly was just a head better today, that's all."
Pollard and Vance also won the Bassinet in 2003 with In Rome.
Kadira, a Kentucky-bred by Kafwain out of the Rahy mare Raw Gold, returned $11.40 after finishing in 1:13 over a fast track. She was making her third start and was coming off a runner-up finish behind Palanka City in the Aug. 12 Bassinet prep. Palanka City, the 2-1 choice under Rodney Prescott, finished third, beaten 1 1/4 lengths, after breaking slowly.
The Bassinet is the sister race to the Cradle Stakes, the annual River highlight that will be renewed on Monday's closing-day program.