Granny's Kitten Brings Promise into Secretariat
Light on seasoning and big on promise, Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Granny’s Kitten comes into the Grade I $450,000 Secretariat Stakes on Arlington Million Day with every reason to move forward for connections who won the race with Admiral Kitten two years ago. Like said winner, Granny’s Kitten is a Mike Maker-trained son of Secretariat winner Kitten’s Joy.
“We are going to take a crack at the Secretariat,” Ken Ramsey said. “We have his full-brother, who is a beautiful specimen, selling at the sale in France a week later and are really hoping a victory will help him be a million-dollar yearling.”
Out of the Grand Slam mare Granny Franny, the Pennsylvania-bred homebred is a full-brother to Grade I-winning filly Kitten’s Dumplings, whose signature victory was in the Grade I $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup in 2013. Granny Franny, herself, was a talented but lightly raced allowance winner for Maker and the Ramseys.
After debuting with a flourish in July 2014, winning by 4¼ lengths in a six-furlong grass dash, the bay colt did not return until May 10 at Churchill Downs and did not disappoint when wiring a first-level allowance. Impressively, it was not only his first race in 10 months, but also was at 1 1/8-miles – a tall order that he took with aplomb when coming home in a spritely 1:48.81.
Dropped down in trip to a mile to compete in the Grade III $500,000 Penn Mile just 20 days later at Penn National, a tough trip resulted in a narrow three-quarter-length loss to expected Secretariat favorite Force the Pass. That Richard Santulli-owned and Alan Goldberg-trained colt returned to Grade I $1,250,000 on July 4 – a race in which Granny’s Kitten stalked and then failed to deliver, giving the first poor showing of his four-race career.
“He was sick after the race, so it is obvious that he wasn’t 100%,” Ramsey explained. “I drew a line through it. When they’re sick the day after, it definitely affected their performance. He’s a better horse than that and we are giving him a chance to show it.”
NITE OF THE HUNTER LIKELY FOR DUCHOSSOIS MEMORIAL
The $50,000-added Bruce Duchossois Memorial on the Million Day undercard is likely to draw one of the more impressive maiden breakers this meet in owner-trainer Hugh Robertson’s Nite of the Hunter.
A 14¼-length winner going a flat mile at Arlington on June 27, the son of burgeoning sire Temple City finally showed the talent he had revealed in traces in races prior. He returned three weeks later to finish a game, albeit wide, third in allowance optional claiming company on the grass July 16.
The Duchossois Memorial will be contested at the same one-turn mile as Nite of the Hunter’s sole victory and is restricted to 3-year-olds. In previous years, it was known as the Straight Line Stakes.
Source: Arlington Park