Pioneerof the Nile Filly Stalks And Pounces in Churchill Bow

[Wandering Eyes]

In a race left wide open with the scratching of morning-line favorite Further Lane (Lea), HALAMA (f, 2, Pioneerof the Nile–Milania, by Bernardini) outslugged her two chief rivals in the market to open her account at first asking Saturday at Churchill. Drawn widest of the seven remaining runners, the $200,000 Fasig-Tipton October acquisition landed in midfield through the opening exchanges before working her way up into a three-deep third, as favored Weekend Fun (More Than Ready) cut out the running from 2-1 second choice Speighty Shirl (Speightstown). Those three stretched across the track at the top of the lane and raced heads apart into the final eighth of a mile before Halama asserted a sixteenth out en route to a two-length score Weekend Fun boxed on gamely at the fence to hold second from Speighty Shiri in a WinStar-sired trifecta. Halama was acquired in utero for $310,000 at Keeneland November in 2016 and is out of a winning daughter of Keeper Hill (Deputy Minister), victorious in the 1998 GI Kentucky Oaks beneath the Twin Spires and later the dam of Mill Ridge stallion Keep Up (Unbridled’s Song). Keeper Hill was a half-sister to the good sprinter Golden Gear (Gulch), who also stood for a time at Mill Ridge. Halama, also a $170,000 KEENOV weanling and $90,000 KEESEP RNA, is a half-sister to a Curlin filly who made $200,000 at KEENOV earlier this week. Milania visited Justify this term. O-Wayne Sanders & Larry Hirsch; B-Buscar Stables Inc (KY); T-Brendan Walsh.

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