Venencia leads trainer Walsh's one-two finish in Dowager Stakes
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Trainer Brendan Walsh, having the best Keeneland meet of his still-rising career, sent out the one-two finishers Sunday in the Grade 3, $350,000 Dowager Stakes, in which Venencia repelled a stern bid from Bless My Stars.
Walsh, atop the trainer standings generally after eight racing days, has run wild in graded stakes. His third Dowager runner, Spanish Eyes, finished fourth, leaving Walsh’s graded-stakes mark during October at Keeneland at 8-4-1-1.
Both Venencia and Bless My Stars made their first start for Walsh, Bless My Stars running for the first time since January, Venencia having just raced Sept. 6 at Woodbine for trainer Michael Doyle. Her owners – Bradley Thoroughbreds, Laura Leigh Stable, Jim Cone, and Belmar Racing and Breeding – have the 5-year-old mare catalogued in Keeneland’s November sale. Sunday’s victory, Venencia’s first in a graded race, might have earned them more than the Dowager’s $147,250 winner’s share.
Venencia ($17.76) never had raced beyond nine furlongs until making her last two starts at Woodbine, where she ran 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 miles, yet Walsh told jockey Ben Curtis, who rode his second graded-stakes winner of the meet, not to worry about the distance.
“He said she had plenty of stamina and that wasn’t going to be an issue today,” Curtis said.
With that in mind, Curtis, after negotiating the first of three turns in this 1 1/2-mile grass contest, took his mount out of line and let her run up to press the slow pace being set by Cupid’s Crush.
“We were going very steady, and I was keen to make it more of a test,” Curtis said.
Venencia took Cupid’s Crush’s measure with five-sixteenths of a mile remaining, then braced for Bless My Stars’ challenge. Sitting third most of the trip, Bless My Stars under John Velazquez made an outside bid and briefly had a midstretch lead before Venencia, hugging the rail, outstayed her and won by 2 3/4 lengths going away.
“Johnny came and headed me. His horse picked up well, but mine ground it out,” Curtis said.
Vive Veuve, narrowly favored over Spanish Eyes, tried to get into the mix in upper stretch, but couldn’t quicken over a yielding course while racing farther than she might really want to run. Spanish Eyes, despite being a European import, needs firmer footing for her best.
Venencia ran her 1 1/2 miles in 2:35.69, with testing conditions producing a slow time. Bred in France, where she made one start before coming into the American barn of trainer Chad Brown, 5-year-old Venencia is by Recoletos out of Sign of Life, by Lemon Drop Kid.
“She was working nice since she came to us,” Walsh said. “We didn’t do anything fancy. It was a question of whether she’d stay or not, and if she liked the ground. It all worked out.”
Walsh over the last two weekends won the Grade 1 Spinster with Gin Gin and the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup with Lush Lips. Everything is working out for him this October at Keeneland.
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