Keep Quiet punched a ticket to the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 4 with a score in Sunday's GIII Dixiana Bourbon S. at Keeneland. The Mark Casse trainee enjoyed a stalk-and-pounce trip and earned the first graded stakes success of his young career.
The bay finished sixth and fifth in his first two starts sprinting at Belmont, but put it all together with a wire-to-wire score going 1 1/16 miles over the lawn at Saratoga Aug. 6. The French-bred recently attended a moderate pace from the outside and held on to finish second behind Made You Look (More Than Ready) in the GII With Anticipation S. at Saratoga Aug. 31. He drilled steadily at the Spa in the interim and shipped south for this first appearance in Kentucky.
Away in good order in this 14-horse field, the colt secured an ideal spot tracking the pace in third as longshot Cold Snack Thirty led through a half-mile in :47.78. He moved three wide to poke his head in front soon after that juncture, cornered for home in front and found more late to cross the wire just over a length in front. Heavily favored Ticonderoga rallied strongly on the far turn but raced greenly in the stretch and closed belatedly to complete the exacta.
“This is a super talented horse,” commented Norm Casse, assistant to his father Mark. “We were disappointed in him early–we figured him out a little bit. He wants to be comfortable early. He didn't want to be rushed off his feet sprinting. [Florent Geroux] gets along with him really well. We just let him be him.”
Geroux added, “We had a good trip. I was just behind two horses. From there, he settled nicely, relaxed. When the horses came next to him in the stretch, he was very brave and showed a lot of heart.”
Team Casse also annexed Saturday's GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity S. at Keeneland with Classic Empire (Pioneerof the Nile), and jockey Geroux completed a sweep of the stakes on the Sunday card with a victory aboard I'm a Chatterbox (Munnings) in the GI Juddmonte Spinster S. one race later.
Pedigree Notes:
Keep Quiet was purchased for $45,455 by Justin Casse at the 2014 Arqana December Sale and imported to the United States. He follows in the footsteps of his older half-sister Little Treasure, a stakes winner in France who came to America and captured the GII San Clemente H. and GIII Pucker Up S. Luminosity produced a full-brother to the winner in 2015.
Sunday, Keeneland
DIXIANA BOURBON S.-GIII, $250,000, KEE, 10-9, 2yo, 1 1/16mT, 1:44.92, fm.
1–#@KEEP QUIET (FR), 118, c, 2, by Elusive City
1st Dam: Luminosity (GB), by Sillery
2nd Dam: Bague Bleue (Ire), by Last Tycoon (Ire)
3rd Dam: Batave, by Posse
(€37,000 Wlg '14 ARQDEC). O-Gary Barber; B-S.A.R.L.
Pontchartrain Stud & S.A.R.L. Riviera Equine (FR); T-Mark E.
Casse; J-Florent Geroux. $150,000. Lifetime Record: 5-2-1-0,
$243,550. *1/2 to Little Treasure (Fr) (Night Shift), SW-Fr,
MGSW-US, $305,262; Harem Lady (Fr) (Teofilo {Ire}), MGSP,
$125,347. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk
Nick Rating: B.
2–Ticonderoga, 118, c, 2, Tapit–Keertana, by Johar. ($850,000
Ylg '15 KEESEP). O-Woodford Racing, LLC; B-Bryant H. Prentice,
III (KY); T-Chad C. Brown. $50,000.
3–Bird's Eye View, 118, c, 2, Mizzen Mast–Lavish Outlook, by
Smarty Jones. ($52,000 Ylg '15 KEESEP; $50,000 2yo '16
OBSMAR). O-Ballybrit Stable, LLC; B-Cloyce C Clark & Jay
Goodwin (KY); T-Michael Dini. $25,000.[bullet ad=”good-win-bred-foaled-and-raised”][bullet ad=”selectsales-shell”]Margins: 1 1/4, HF, NK. Odds: 4.00, 0.90, 23.00.
Also Ran: Royal by Nature (Ire), Artful Union, Heaven Is Waiting, Hembree, Hot Dad, All Right, Prados Way, Real Creel, Ancient Warfare, Unbridled Eagle, Cold Snack Thirty. Scratched: Sonic Boom, It's Your Nickel.
Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
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