Time to Dazzle goes last to first in Franklin Stakes
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Time to Dazzle took advantage of a speed duel, an excellent ride from Jose Ortiz, and the absence of favorite Future Is Now to win the Grade 2, $390,350 Franklin Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland.
Rallying from last of seven, Time to Dazzle defeated one of the pace-duelers, In Our Time, by a widening 3 1/4 lengths. In Our Time held second by a head over Pondering, who had a neck on fourth-place Pipsy. Then came Cart Girl Sam, One Happy Mama, and Luna Louska, the other filly who rattled off hot fractions in this 5 1/2-furlong grass dash for older fillies and mares.
Time to Dazzle clocked 1:02.09 over firm going and paid $8.06 to win. Mark Casse trains 4-year-old Time to Dazzle for owner Tracy Farmer.
Regulatory veterinarians scratched Future Is Now on Sunday morning. The 5-year-old mare, based in Maryland with trainer Michael Trombetta, was the 7-5 morning-line favorite and had won seven of her last nine starts, all turf sprint stakes.
Though Future Is Now figured to be part of the pace, a surplus of speed still showed up. On paper, Luna Louska looked like the Franklin’s fastest, but after In Our Time broke on top, it took Luna Louska the better part of 10 strides to sort herself out. When she did, she zoomed up to challenge In Our Time, the first quarter-mile going in a robust 20.65 seconds. That figured to set the table for a closer, and it did.
Last, but not that far off the lead at the three-furlong marker, Time to Dazzle came to the five-sixteenths pole ready to rally, but Ortiz needed to find a way through. Cornering for home in the No. 2 path, Ortiz ever so briefly probed to the outside, considering a split, but instead craftily waited for Pondering to pass the tiring Luna Louska. Ortiz followed Pondering, and when Pondering vacated the rail, Ortiz found his lane. Time to Dazzle quickly collared Pondering and, still on the fence, came abreast of In Our Time before the sixteenth pole, drawing steadily clear to the wire.
Bred by Dr. Rodney Orr, Time to Dazzle is by Not This Time -- who continues on a run of stakes success almost impossible to digest – and out of Staria, by Unbridled’s Song. Casse debuted Time to Dazzle over one mile and kept her routing for her first six starts, the last of them a win in the one-mile Ontario Colleen. But following that stakes success, Time to Dazzle switched to sprints. Beaten less than one length by Future Is Now in the Caress this summer at Saratoga, and beaten a half-length by In Our Time last out at Kentucky Downs, Time to Dazzle had her time to shine Sunday at Keeneland.
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