Sanagas came off the pace to claim his second stakes win in North America, when he won the Sycamore Stakes at Keeneland
The 5-year-old German bred gelding Sanagas, bounced back from his 4th place finish in the Grade 2 Bowling Green a month back, to win the $100,000 Sycamore Stakes at a rainy Keeneland on 20 October, 2011.
This was Sanagas’s fourth race on American soil and already he bagged his second stakes win. The Sycamore was rained off the turf course to Keeneland’s synthetic surface, and this switch might strip the race’s grade 3 status of it because the American Graded
Stakes Committee will review to determine whether it should retain its original status or not.
Trained by Graham Motion, Sanagas was sent off as the 9 to 5 second choice and he was under jockey Rajiv Maragh, who slotted the experienced gelding at the fifth position in a field of six in the early going.
Rajiv Maragh seemed content keeping Sanagas off the pace and tracking the pace setter Bim Bam through the half mile, which Bim Bam covered in 49.25 seconds.
After crossing the half mile marker, Sanagas moved up a spot as Bim Bam continued to lead the way after splits of 1 minute and 14.43 seconds and 1 minute and 39.23 seconds.
All the action happened after the field went past the quarter pole, as Bim Bam retained a short lead over Eagle Poise and Centre Divide, that is when Sanagas picked up the pace and went three wide coming off the turn.
Coming to the eighth pole, Sanagas gained a 1 lengths advantage and started to pull away in the stretch. All of a sudden Tahoe Lake made a late run and out of nowhere was in contention.
Under jockey Many Cruz, Tahoe Lake seemed determined, but Sanagas wasn’t going to give away all his hard work to his adversaries determined run, as he stayed focused and held off his rival run to win the by half a length.
Centre Divide, who sent off as the favourite to win the race couldn’t do much in the final furlong and on top of it lost his second place finish to Tahoe Lake, as he rolled in third another 2 ¼ lengths under jockey Julien Leparoux.
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