Time to Dazzle notches second consecutive Franklin Stakes triumph

Not until the last jump did Time to Dazzle secure a repeat victory in the Franklin Stakes.

Still four lengths behind at the stretch call, Time to Dazzle mustered all the late speed possible over a sodden, laboring turf course and nipped tiring Kehoe Beach at the wire in the Grade 2, $387,325 Franklin on a soggy Sunday at Keeneland.

Kehoe Beach raced from second much of the trip and inherited the lead after pacesetting longshot Itzel began backing up in midstretch, but she could not hold it. Time to Dazzle had to work much harder than when she won the 2025 Franklin by 3 1/2 lengths, but the mare got the money again.

Itzel was third at 35-1, 1 1/4 lengths behind Kehoe Beach and one length ahead of late-running Movin’ On Up, who was fourth by a neck over Usha. Usha failed to handle a yielding course while making her turf debut, only Pondering and Ag Bullet behind her.

Keeneland’s wet course fell far outside of Ag Bullet’s comfort zone, but the fabulous mare, among the best female sprinter-milers in North America the last two seasons, never came close to contending. The Franklin followed a poor performance as the favorite in the Kentucky Downs Ladies Sprint, and 6-year-old Ag Bullet probably has run her last race.

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Time to Dazzle, trained by Mark Casse for Tracy Farmer, had made six starts since her Franklin win in October, including a respectable fourth in the 1351 Turf Sprint in Saudi Arabia last February, but she had failed to win any of them.

Irad Ortiz rode the mare for the first time on Sunday and patiently waited sixth of seven as Itzel tore off to a clear lead, her slow splits of 22.47 and 45.49 an indication of how much rain the course had taken. Ortiz bided his time, stoked up Time to Dazzle past the three-furlong marker, and while she came to the homestretch full of run, a horse can only go so fast over this kind of course. Ortiz timed it to the split second.

Time to Dazzle paid $6.10 as the favorite and got her 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.52. The gray mare is by Not This Time out of Staria, by Unbridled’s Song, and while it was not pretty, she won the Franklin for the second year in a row Sunday at Keeneland.

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