Stonestreet Stables' Twilight Gleaming cruised past Miner's Queen approaching the eighth pole and coasted to a 1½-length victory over Querobin Dourada in the $250,000 Giant's Causeway on Saturday at Keeneland.
Trained by Wesley Ward and ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr., Twilight Gleaming covered the 5½ furlongs on a firm turf course in a stakes record 1:01.74. The previous standard was set last year of 1:01.98 by Campanelle, who also was owned by Stonestreet and trained by Ward.
The victory is the fourth in the race for Ward, who also won with Lady Aurelia in 2017 and Holiday for Kitten in 2011, and the third for Ortiz, who rode Campanelle last year and Morticia in 2019.
Miner's Queen led the field of 12 through fractions of :21.68 and :44.39 with Twilight Gleaming tracking to her outside. In the stretch, Ortiz sent Twilight Gleaming after the leader, quickly took command and was not threatened in the run to the wire.
The winner of the 2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G2) at Del Mar, Twilight Gleaming is a 4-year-old daughter of National Defense out of the Dansili mare Thames Pageant. She was bred in Great Britain by Pier House Stud.
The victory was worth $113,150 and increased Twilight Gleaming's earnings to $906,580. Her career line improved to 6-3-0 from 10 starts.
As the favorite, Twilight Gleaming returned $7.54 for the victory. Querobin Dourada, ridden by Joe Talamo, finished a head in front of third-place finisher Star Devine under Jose Ortiz.
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