Chanteline Holds off Favored Belvoir Bay (GB) to Win Buffalo Trace Franklin County

By Amy Owens —-

LEXINGTON, KY. (Oct. 12, 2018) – Ten Broeck Farm’s Chanteline surged to the lead inside the sixteenth pole and held off a late bid from favored Belvoir Bay (GB) by three-quarters of a length to win the 22nd running of the $100,000 Buffalo Trace Franklin County (G3) for fillies and mares before a Friday afternoon crowd of 17,192. (Click here for a replay of the race.)
Trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Ricardo Santana Jr., Chanteline covered the 5½ furlongs on a firm turf course in 1:02.89. It was the first Keeneland stakes victory for Santana and sixth for Asmussen, the trainer’s first since 2007.
Chanteline, a Keeneland sales graduate, is cataloged as a racing or broodmare prospect as Hip 34 in Keeneland’s November Breeding Stock Sale, which begins Nov. 5.
Girls Know Best claimed the lead out of the gate and opened a daylight advantage on the field of 13 through an opening quarter of :21.30 with Brielle’s Appeal and Smiling Causeway in closest pursuit.
Girls Know Best was still in front after a half-mile in :44.76 with Chanteline just in behind the leading pack. In the stretch Santana found room four wide for clear sailing, eventually hitting the front inside the sixteenth pole and having enough left to fend off Belvoir Bay, who was closing on the rail.
A 6-year-old Kentucky-bred mare, Chanteline is a daughter of Majesticperfection out of the Indian Charlie mare Listen to Libby. Friday’s $60,000 winner’s check boosted her earnings to $584,972 with a record of 26-9-7-3. It is her first graded stakes victory.
Chanteline returned $8.60, $4.40 and $3.20, Belvoir Bay, ridden by Flavien Prat, returned $4 and $2.80 and finished a half-length in front of defending champion Morticia, who paid $3.80 to show under Jose Lezcano.
It was another neck back to Girls Know Best in fourth with Delectation (GB), Excessivespending, Aiken to Be, Smiling Causeway, Con Te Partiro, On Probation, Country Chick, Brielle’s Appeal and Miss Gossip (IRE) following in order.
Racing continues Saturday with a 10-race program beginning at 1:05 p.m. ET with the highlight being the 35th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Presented by Lane’s End (G1) for 3-year-old fillies going 1 1/8 miles on the turf. Post time for the QE II, the afternoon’s ninth race, is 5:30 p.m.
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Friday was College Scholarship Day at Keeneland in which full-time college students received free general admission and the chance to win one of ten $1,000 scholarships awarded after each race. In addition, two $10,000 Runhappy Scholarships (one of which was only available to a student with a tie to the horse industry) were awarded. The Runhappy Scholarships are named after the champion sprinter who stands at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky.

The Runhappy Scholarship winners were Jordan Blain, a senior management and marketing major at the University of Kentucky, and Alex Johnston, who is majoring in biology at Western Kentucky University.

“We came to Keeneland for a class project we had to do today,” Blain said. “Our professor brought us here and we took a tour around Keeneland. (The class project) was to look at what Keeneland does differently than other businesses, and then we were going out to find something that Keeneland does that (our tour guide) didn’t already talk about.

“I’m very excited. I actually cried a little bit. I called my mom and she cried too, so we all cried. I’m so excited.”

Johnston’s father is former jockey Jeff Johnston, who won 1,375 races. He is the Midwest Regional Manager for the Jockeys’ Guild.
“Hopefully I am going to be a doctor,” Johnston said. “I am looking into dermatology right now, but it changes a lot.
“I knew it was scholarship day at Keeneland and I pre-registered online,” she added. “I thought it would be a fun day. I just came to be at the races; I had no idea this would happen.”

Quotes from the $100,000 Buffalo Trace Franklin County (G3)

Scott Blasi (assistant to Steve Asmussen, winning trainer of Chanteline)
“She’s just got such a big heart. She’s gotten really good this summer. I actually think she prefers the grass over the dirt (where she won the March 3 Spring Fever at Oaklawn). She’s learned to relax and punch home. She’s been very special to us.”
Ricardo Santana Jr. (winning rider)
“I saw the race had a lot of speed. She’s the kind of filly where you can put her in the lead, you can put her from behind. She always tries hard. Today, I followed the same plan I did at Saratoga (where she won the Aug. 26 Smart N Fancy): Put her behind the speed and make one run. That’s what she did.”
Flavien Prat (rider of favorite and runner-up Belvoir Bay [GB])
“I wish I had gotten out earlier than that. I had to wait a little bit, and then she gave me a great trip. She ran a great race. (I knew) I could get through on the rail. I wish we could have gone a little faster (with the fractions), but it is what it is.”
Jose Lezcano (rider of third-place finisher and defending champion Morticia)
“She is a very nice filly, always runs very good. She is always right there. She ran her race. I had a very good trip. No trouble at all.”

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For more than 80 years, the Keeneland Association has devoted itself to the health and vibrancy of the Thoroughbred industry. The world’s largest Thoroughbred auction house, Keeneland conducts four sales a year, in January, April, September and November, and its sales graduates dominate racing across the globe at every level. In April and October, Keeneland offers some of the highest caliber and richest Thoroughbred racing in the world. Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in 2015 and will hold the event again in 2020. Uniquely structured, Keeneland is a private, for-profit corporation that returns its earnings to the industry and the community in the form of higher purses and millions of dollars donated in support of horse industry initiatives and charitable contributions for education, research and health and human services throughout Central Kentucky. To learn more, visit Keeneland.com.