La Sardane caps big month with victory in Perfect Sting
La Sardane won her second Belmont turf stakes this month, leading all the way under Flavien Prat in the $100,000 Perfect Sting Stakes on Saturday.
La Sardane had stalked and pounced in the seven-furlong Intercontinental on June 9, but the tactics were right today as La Sardane got away with a very comfortable opening quarter-mile in 23.68 seconds. She went her half in 46.41, six furlongs in 1:09.58, and stopped the timer in 1:33.19 for one mile on firm going. Getting a final quarter-mile in 23.61, faster than her first quarter, after a 22.71 second quarter is solid stuff, and La Sardane was clearly best today.
"I always wanted to try and be on the lead with her,” Prat said. “She won in France on the lead, so I thought on this turf, she would like that a little bit better. She's very fast and has a high cruising speed. When I asked her to go, she gave me that great kick.”
Trained by Neil Drysdale for a Team Valor International partnership, the 4-year-old French import paid $5.60 as the favorite.
La Sardane came out of provincial French racecourses with an off-brand pedigree (by Kingsalsa and out of Foresta, by Forestier) but showed group-stakes form during the spring of 2017. She attracted the attention of Team Valor principal Barry Irwin and was purchased privately with an eye toward racing at Del Mar last summer.
Instead, La Sardane required a break from the racetrack, then was slow to get to race again this year. She endured an abysmal trip at Keeneland in her North American debut but won her next race at Churchill before capturing the two stakes this month.
Thais, the second choice, stuck close to La Sardane early but ran poorly and faded out of contention. Pas de Soucis, three or four paths wide on the turn, made a decent bid to nearly reach the leader in upper stretch, but her run was relatively short lived, and In the Lee, who was last early, came late to nail her for second.
