Raven Run winner Lightstream will resume training after 60-days off
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In Saturday’s Lexus Raven Run (G2), only one filly in the field of 12 had won a race at Keeneland.
That statistic remained unchanged as Up Hill Stable and Head of Plains Partners’ Lightstream added the Lexus Raven Run to her victory in the Adena Springs Beaumont (G3) from the Spring Meet.
“She is as happy as she can be this morning,” said Louis Rushlow, assistant to trainer Brian Lynch, of the filly, who has won four of six starts.
Lightstream did not ship into Keeneland until Wednesday.
“She just jogged a couple of days after she got here,” Rushlow said. “She did all of her major work at Belmont.”
Saturday’s victory most likely closed the 2016 campaign for Lightstream.
“The plan going in was to give her 60 days off after the race and then take her to Palm Meadows to get ready for her 4-year-old season,” Rushlow said.
Lightstream finished 1¼ lengths in front of Malibu Stacy, who went off at 40-1 for trainer George Weaver.
“She had been showing us all along that she would run like that,” said Austin Trites, who is overseeing Weaver’s Keeneland string. “Jose Ortiz worked her the first time in :59 and 2 and then Gabe (Saez) worked her last week in a minute and never moved a muscle. We knew that all systems were go.”
Owned by Jim and Susan Hill, Malibu Stacy was listed at 30-1 on the morning line, a number that surprised Trites.
“The line didn’t make sense because all of her dirt races this year were good,” Trites said of the filly, who was ninth in a turf stakes at Belmont prior to the Raven Run.
“Malibu Stacy is a full sister to Coasted, who probably will be in the Breeders’ Cup (Juvenile Fillies Turf-G1) and we couldn’t resist (trying her on the grass).”
Trites said Malibu Stacy would remain at Keeneland for a couple of days with plans after that undetermined.
“It will be up to Jim Hill, and he likes to give his horses the winter off,” Trites said.
Completing the Lexus Raven Run trifecta was 34-1 shot Coniah, owned by breeders James and Tammy McKenney.
“We were very delighted with her,” said Steven Hampson, assistant to trainer Kiaran McLaughlin. “That was the best race of her life and hopefully she can build off that.”
Hampson said the filly would remain here until the end of the week when the McLaughlin string ships to New York and Florida.
“Kiaran will talk with the owners and she may go back to California for the La Brea (G1) the day after Christmas,” Hampson said. “That’s the last chance to run against strictly 3-year-olds.”
MOTION ON VERGE OF MEET RECORD FOR MOST STAKES WINS
If trainer Graham Motion wins today’s Rood & Riddle Dowager (G3) with Bill Crager’s Rachel Wall, he will earn his fifth stakes victory of Keeneland’s Fall Meet and set a record for the most stakes wins by a trainer during any racing season at the track. His four stakes victories tie him with Racing Hall of Famers Ben Jones and D. Wayne Lukas and multiple Eclipse Award winner Todd Pletcher.
Motion’s stakes wins this season are the Oct. 7 Darley Alcibiades (G1) with Dancing Rags, Oct. 8 Shadwell Turf Mile (G1) with Miss Temple City, Oct. 14 Buffalo Trace Franklin County (G3) with Miss Ella and Friday’s Pin Oak Valley View (G3) with Quidura (GB). He has won 31 stakes here.
The other trainers with four wins during a Keeneland meet have won some of the track’s most prestigious races:
Jones – 1948 Spring Meet: Ashland (Bewitch), Ben Ali (Fervent), Blue Grass (Coaltown), Phoenix (Coaltown);
Lukas – 1994 Fall Meet: Dowager (Market Booster), Fort Springs (Lord Carson), Indian Summer (Lilly Capote), Phoenix (Lost Pan);
Lukas – 1995 Fall Meet: Alcibiades (Cara Rafaela), Breeders’ Futurity (G2) (Honour and Glory), Thoroughbred Club of America (G3) (Cat Appeal), Valley View Breeders’ Cup (Country Cat);
Pletcher – 2011 Spring Meet: Ben Ali (G3) (Exhi), Commonwealth (G2) (Aikenite), Hilliard Lyons Doubledogdare (G3) (Embur’s Song), Shakertown (G3) (Stratford Hill).
ECLIPSE AWARD WINNER GAFFALIONE EARNS FIRST KEENELAND WIN
Tyler Gaffalione, the 2015 Eclipse Award winner as the nation’s leading apprentice rider, scored his first Keeneland victory Saturday with Tim Thornton’s Cookies Are Good in the second race, a 1 1/16-mile maiden claiming race.
“I came up here in the spring and rode a horse for Mike Tomlinson (Lookin for a Kiss) in the (Toyota) Blue Grass Stakes (G1),” said Gaffalione, who is based in South Florida.
“That was fun,” Gaffalione added of Saturday’s 1¾-length victory that ended at the first finish line in the Keeneland stretch. “I knew about the first wire. Everybody kept reminding me.”
Cookies Are Good, a 2-year-old gelding by Purge, is trained by Tom Proctor.
PROBABLE STARTERS FOR CLOSING-DAY HAGYARD FAYETTE
$200,000 HAGYARD FAYETTE (G2) (Entries taken Wednesday, race Saturday) – Chocopologie (Pat Devereux Jr.), Divining Rod (Arnaud Delacour), Hawaakom (Wesley Hawley), Iron Fist (Steve Asmussen), Kasaqui (ARG) (Ignacio Correas IV), Noble Bird (Mark Casse).
Source: Keeneland Association
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