La Sardane digs in to capture Intercontinental

ELMONT, N.Y. – Things didn’t go as planned after La Sardane was imported to the U.S. from France last summer, but they’re starting to click now, and on Friday at Belmont Park she won the Grade 3, $200,000 Intercontinental Stakes by a neck.

La Sardane, purchased by Team Valor International about a year ago after she finished second in the Prix de la Grotte, beat subsequent Group 1 French Oaks winner Senga in the Prix Sandringham after the Team Valor purchase. She was sent to California with the Del Mar Oaks as a goal, but cannon-bone bruising took her out of consideration for that race, according to Team Valor president Barry Irwin.

La Sardane was sent to a farm for rest last fall but instead of being turned out in a field, Irwin said, she was confined to a much smaller area and took a long time to come around after returning to the racetrack.

“It took so long to get that weight off,” Irwin said. “She was as big as a house.”

La Sardane got a five-wide parking lot trip at Keeneland in April making her North American debut and first start for trainer Neil Drysdale and was no factor in an allowance race, but she had every right to be tired and returned with a sharp Churchill Downs allowance win around two turns.

Turning back to seven furlongs in the Intercontinental, La Sardane, tracking the fastest pace she’d ever encountered with a sweet outside stalking trip under Flavien Prat, had no chance to pull too hard, as she has been inclined to do at times. As the Bob Baffert-trained Faypien set comfortable splits of 22.87 and 45.43 over a firm course, La Sardane raced in fourth around the far turn and into the homestretch. At the quarter pole Prat called on his mount and La Sardane responded, getting on even terms with Faypien at the furlong grounds and pushing past for a narrow victory. Faypien had something left, too, and Prat had to give La Sardane a couple of solid smacks with the crop just before the wire to make certain the filly knew her work wasn’t quite done.

Faypien, who was 9-1, finished a nose in front of 20-1 pace-presser Heavenly Score, a sign the race flow favored front-runners. Behind the top three came Malibu Stacy, Always Thinking, 7-2 second choice Delectation, 5-2 favorite Stormy Victoria, and 9-2 Thundering Sky. I’m Betty G and, more significantly, 2-1 morning-line favorite Lady Alexandra, were scratched. La Sardane, who paid $10.80 to win, was timed in 1:20.04 as the front-runners really picked up the pace in the stretch.

“She was quite calm going to the gate today,” said Drysdale, who during Kentucky Derby week at Churchill won the Edgewood Stakes with the 3-year-old turf filly Toinette. “The last two races have helped her a lot.”

Irwin said Drysdale’s wife, the bloodstock agent Shawn Dugan, had recommended La Sardane for purchase last year. The filly has a relatively obscure pedigree – she is by the Kingmambo sire Kingsalsa and out of Foresta, by Forestier – and had come out of provincial French tracks for a little-known trainer to show her wares last year.

“She’s a physical monster with no pedigree at all – a total freak,” Irwin said. “I don’t like buying those kind. I used to, but with no pedigree they can be difficult to resell. But she’s so incredible looking I figured what the hell.”

Seven furlongs probably is a touch short of La Sardane’s best distance – and now that she is blooming again, it will be interesting to see how high she can grow.