Considering the success that Barbara Hunter’s homebred Keertana has had at 1
3/8 miles, the added furlong of Thursday’s Grade 3, $150,000 Bewitch at
Keeneland figured to be well within her scope. The 2-1 favorite endorsed that
logic with a cozy 1 1/4-length victory, under confident handling by Jose Lezcano.
An unhurried Keertana was allowed to settle into stride well off the early
pace. With the scratch of expected pacesetter Persuading, Silver La Belle (Langfuhr)
led through an opening quarter on the yielding turf in :25 3/5, but Honimiere
(Ire) cruised to the front as the field passed the stands for the first time.
Honimiere proceeded to reel off fractions of :50 1/5, 1:15 4/5 and 1:42, with
Silver La Belle a clear second. Super Espresso and La Luna de Miel (Ger) came
next, while the rail-skimming Endless Expanse (Ire), Keertana and My Baby Baby
were all content to wait.
On the third and final turn, La Luna de Miel and Keertana began to take
closer order, creeping into second and third, respectively, through 1 1/4 miles
in 2:08 1/5. By the time they swung into the stretch, however, Keertana plainly
had the greater momentum, outkicked La Luna de Miel and soon dispatched
Honimiere. Stretching clear convincingly, Keertana had the race wrapped up by
the eighth-pole. Lezcano gave her an easy time the rest of the way, permitting
the late-running My Baby Baby to reduce the gap without ever endangering the
winner’s mastery.
Keertana negotiated 1 1/2 miles on the rain-softened ground in 2:33, paying
$6.40, $3.60 and $3. My Baby Baby crossed the wire one length ahead of Honimiere.
A one-paced La Luna de Miel took fourth, followed by Endless Expanse, Silver La
Belle and an eased Super Espresso. Silk Route and Zapparition were withdrawn
along with Persuading.
“She probably just likes to have the three turns,” winning trainer Tom
Proctor said of Keertana. “She’s run some pretty powerful races when we run her
there.”
Proctor also commented on the pleasure of leading in a winner for
owner/breeder Barbara Hunter.
“It’s perfect — I’ve known her since I was a little kid,” the horseman said.
“Every time Mrs. Hunter wins a race, people remember Stanley Rieser (longtime
trainer for Hunter). They come up and say it. He was a longtime friend of my
father’s (trainer Willard Proctor).”
Keertana is edging closer to millionaire status with
$914,371 in earnings from her 25-10-5-6 record, and she has now won or placed in
13 stakes. As a three-year-old in 2009, the dark bay captured the Grade 3 Regret
and Indiana Downs Distaff and placed in the Grade 1 Garden City, Grade 2 Mrs.
Revere, Grade 2 Lake Placid and Grade 3 Valley View.
Last season, Keertana placed in the Grade 3 Mint Julep and De La Rose over
the summer, but showed an entirely new dimension when stepped up in trip for the
1 3/8-mile, Grade 3 Glens Falls, where she exploded to an impressive 3
1/4-length triumph. She concluded her 2010 campaign with a hard-charging third
in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, beaten all of a half-length.
The five-year-old opened 2011 with two straight scores, a dead-heat allowance
victory at Tampa Bay Downs on January 23 and a half-length decision in the
February 20 Grade 3 The Very One over 1 3/8 miles at Gulfstream Park. Keertana
cut back in trip to about 1 1/8 miles for the March 12 Grade 3 Hillsborough at
Tampa, rallying from last to finish third.
By Johar, the Kentucky-bred was produced by the unraced Storm Cat mare
Motokiks, making her a half-sister to last year’s Garden City, Regret and Grade
3 Arlington Oaks runner-up Snow Top Mountain. She has two other younger
half-siblings, a juvenile colt named Moe Moes Rock Ten and an unnamed yearling
colt by Afleet Alex. Motokiks is herself a full sister to multiple German stakes
victor Catoki and a half-sister to two-time Italian highweight and Group 1 hero
Knifebox as well as multiple Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Parochial. This
is the family of multiple Grade 1 heroine Spoken Fur.
When asked if Keertana would once again aim for the Breeders’ Cup, Proctor
was circumspect.
“One race at a time,” Proctor said. “I don’t think you can look too far ahead
with these horses. She’s doing good; I think she’s as good this year as any
year. So it’s nice to see.”