Keeneland: Queen’s Award wins Franklin County Stakes at 30-1

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Eduardo Caramori scratched Queen’s Award from a Polytrack allowance last weekend to await the Buffalo Trace Franklin County Stakes on the Keeneland turf. Horseplayers let him know Friday what they thought of that move: They let Queen’s Award go postward at 30-1 in a field of 10 female turf sprinters.

Caramori, a Brazil native who has resided and trained Thoroughbreds in the Lexington area for more than 20 years, showed that he knew better than they when Queen’s Award, with Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux aboard, stormed down the center of the turf course to upset the 17th running of the Franklin County and pay $63.80.

Well back early, Queen’s Award rallied widest of all to prevail by a half-length over the defending race champion, Madame Giry. Sweet Cassiopeia was third, another half-length back, while Silverette, the 13-10 favorite, finished fourth.

Queen’s Award, a 6-year-old Kentucky-bred mare owned by Luis Hernando Dannemann, was the second-longest price in the lineup. She finished the 5 1/2-furlong distance in 1:03.12 over a firm course, marking her first win in a stakes and her fifth victory overall from 27 career starts.

“The track was very asking, and she’d kind of leveled off at the quarter pole, like the rest of them,” Desormeaux said. “She somehow found more at the eighth pole, and I was very thankful for her to have that desire.”

For Desormeaux, the leading rider at the 2008 Keeneland spring meet, it was his first stakes triumph since he won the Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park aboard Politicallycorrect on Sept. 30, 2012. He had lost with 34 consecutive mounts in stakes since then.

Under sunny skies and amid temperatures in the high 70s, longshot Bounding Bi led to the quarter pole before Sweet Cassiopeia angled off the rail to overtake her. Past the eighth pole, however, it was Madame Giry who had the best run, and only the final surge by Queen’s Award was able to overtake her.

The $2 exacta (11-8) paid $435.20, the $1 trifecta (11-8-2) returned $1,037, and the 10-cent superfecta (11-8-2-7) was worth $289.29.

Early scratches were Ms Anna Destiny, Facey’s Spirit, Jan’s Perfect Star, and Mosaicist.

Ontrack attendance, which was boosted by thousands of fans in town for the Alabama-Kentucky football game Saturday night, was 22,807, a record for a Friday at a Keeneland fall meet. The prior mark was set in 2008.