Photo by Anne Eberhardt

Aruna won the Grade I Spinster Stakes at Keeneland just now.  Running for the first time on polytrack is always a chance as although she loves the Tapeta at Fair Hill the polytrack is a little different at Keeneland.  As always, patiently ridden by Ramon she had to come out almost in the middle of the track to make her move but thankfully she made it when she did as they were chasing her at the finish.  Congratulations to Maria Niarchos of Flaxman Holdings.  This win is a ‘win and you’re in’ for the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic which is run on dirt at Churchill so I don’t know what the decision will be.  She’s by Mr. Greeley who’s progeny also like dirt, her dam’s sire Unbridled of course was third in the Breeders Cup Classic on dirt and Animal Kingdom won on his first start on dirt so………

I do have to mention little Lucky Chappy.  I call him Little Chappy as he is – maybe 15.0 hands if that!  He was running for the first time over here after running with success in Italy and he was ‘tailed off’ for most of the race!  I don’t think the other horses slowed down much but he seemed to get faster during the race!    I don’t know much about how they run in Italy but probably like the rest of Europe where they run most of the race at a good gallop but not crazy and end up finishing in a sprint, so he just ran like they do back there!  He finished a fast finishing third in the Bourbon Stakes (Grade III) to get his first Graded Stakes place.

Gold Megillah, our other runner in the race was running very well too until the incident in the stretch when the leader swerved and fell causing the rest of the field to swerve and bunch up, causing interference with each other.  According to the chart Lucky Chappy made his run ‘unmolested’!

Another interesting thing is that his papers are listed as Bay and if you look at him the first thing that comes to mind is Grey!  We even had to check his microchip when he came over here to make sure he was the right horse but as his parents have never had a grey progeny the Jockey Club are listing him as Bay!