TDN REPORTS ON INTERCONTINENTALS Gr.3 WIN
Grade 1 winner Intercontinental (GB) showed
signs of being rank early but took the lead in the backstretch and
never relinquished it to capture the $200,000 Jenny Wiley Stakes
(G3) on Sunday at Keeneland Race Course.
Last year, the five-year-old daughter of Danehill won the
11⁄16-mile turf race by a length over Ocean Drive. This time
around, she held on to defeat Grade 3 winner Delta Princess by the
same margin. Trainer Bobby Frankel had his bay mare ready to race
despite a long layoff from her previous start, a win in the
Matriarch Stakes (G1) on November 28 at Hollywood Park. She left
the gate on Sunday as the 7-to-10 favorite but hit the first turn
awkwardly and began to toss her head back and forth as she made the
turn into the backstretch.
Racing Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey got her settled after a
halfmile and she soon took over, pulling strongly around the final
turn and through the stretch as she held off a late bid on the
outside from
Delta Princess. “She’s very hard to ride,” Frankel said about
Intercontinental. “She really pulls. … She’s a very good filly,
very talented. In the morning, she’s perfect, but in the afternoon,
she likes to go.” Intercontinental covered the distance in 1:41.89
on a firm course. Sister Swank came in third, another 11⁄4 lengths
behind runner-up Delta Princess.
A homebred from Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, Intercontinental
won last year’s Just a Game Breeders’ Cup Handicap (G2) at Belmont
Park in addition to the Matriarch and Jenny Wiley.
Intercontinental, who has won nine of 16 career starts over four
seasons and has missed the board only twice in her career, is a
full sister to 2001 champion turf female Banks Hill (GB), multiple
highweight
Dansili (GB), and Group 2 winner Cacique and is a half sister to
multiple Grade 1 winner Heat Haze (GB).
Date:
18 April 2005