King's review: Saturday stakes

With Keeneland dark on Easter Sunday, the last racing day there came this past Saturday, with three stakes headlining a card in front of a packed house of 34,933 fans.

Mr Speaker, under Jose Lezcano, won the day’s feature, the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes for 3-year-olds, successfully transferring his turf form to the Keeneland Polytrack.

Trained by Shug McGaughey, Mr Speaker saved ground for much of the race before angling out in the stretch and proving superior, stopping the clock in 1:44.18 for 1 1/16 miles. In victory, he improved his record to 7-3-1-1 and increased his earnings to $269,880.

Divine Oath, another horse shifting from turf to Poly, finished second, just ahead of Supermonic in third.

McGaughey was quick to shoot down any possibility the horse might try to wheel back in the Kentucky Derby, suggesting the immediate focus for Mr Speaker would be on turf racing. Days later, McGaughey assistant Robbie Medina said the May 26 Pennine Ridge at Belmont Park would be Mr Speaker’s next target.

Also winning stakes Saturday were Frac Daddy, who romped by 4 3/4 lengths in the Grade 3 Ben Ali, and Ageless, who took the $100,000 Giant’s Causeway for filly and mare turf sprinters.

Frac Daddy, a talented but erratic sort up until last fall, has found more consistency of late since being raced mostly on turf and Polytrack.

As he showed in the Ben Ali, he is quite good when it puts it all together. He looked like the winner during every stage of the Ben Ali, and blew away the opposition when asked in the stretch by Alan Garcia.

Like Mr. Speaker, he is likely to race on turf in the near future, trainer Ken McPeek said.

The disappointment of the Ben Ali was the performance of fourth-place Newsdad, who never made an impact after trailing in the early stages in a slow-paced race. He was dull, a sentiment echoed by jockey Joel Rosario after the race. The field “was getting away from me so I had to ride him a little to keep him in the race,” he said.

The Giant’s Causeway result was influenced in part by the trips of the competitors – with horses rallying down the middle of the track, away from the tiring speed, faring best.

The winner, Ageless under leading rider Julien Leparoux, gave trainer Arnaud Delacour his first Keeneland stakes victory

The favored Believe in Charlie was unlucky. She broke well and seemed in a good position, but got stuck behind the weakening pacesetter, Saturday N the Park, and was boxed in virtually from start to finish. That doesn’t mean she would have won with a clean trip, but her chances were compromised and contributed her ninth-place finish.

Horse to Watch

Rocktique
Trainer: Conor Murphy
Last race: April 19, 5th
Finish: 2nd by one-half
Beyer: 83
Performed well in her first start in America – pressing the pace, taking command, and almost holding on for an upset victory; is likely to benefit from that start and may perform even better next out with a sharper break; she came away ninth of 10 from the gate.