White Winged Dove became KARAKONTIE’s latest impressive winner on Friday at Keeneland with a last-to-first run to victory in a Maiden Special Weight.
Again showing that KARAKONTIE’s runners can perform on both surfaces and all distances, the filly showed that a mile over dirt was the perfect place for her.
The Graham Motion trainee gave herself a bit of a challenge early on as she broke last of the seven runners and had to settle in last. Junior Alvarado used that to his advantage to pilot the filly closer to the rail as he allowed her to get comfortable eight lengths behind the leader.
Down the backstretch, White Winged Dove moved a few lengths closer but it wasn’t until the far turn that the Flaxman Holdings homebred showed her true talent.
Starting to circle the field, the filly was quickly closing in on the leader as they turned into the stretch. Running down the center of the track, she had to avoid a drifting horse to take the lead but even having to angle out a bit further didn’t stop her momentum as they approached the wire.
It was obvious White Winged Dove was the clear winner with Alvarado letting her coast home after she took the lead to win by a widening length in her first start off a layoff.
#WINNER 🥇 WHITE WINGED DOVE (4f #Karakontie — Aruna, by Mr. Greeley), breaks her maiden nicely in a one mile MSW on the dirt at Keeneland.
🎩🏠 Flaxman Holdings
🧢 @GrahamMotion
🥽 @JuniorandKellyA© Keeneland @Gainesway @FlaxmanSuperFan pic.twitter.com/99BicxjylN
— 𝖭𝗂𝖺𝗋𝖼𝗁𝗈𝗌𝖱𝖺𝖼𝗂𝗇𝗀𝖥𝖺𝗇𝗌 (@Karakontie14) April 9, 2021
A Flaxman Holdings homebred just like KARAKONTIE and White Winged Dove’s Grade 1 winning dam Aruna, the filly is a fourth generation homebred on her dam’s side with the Niarchos family’s influence felt for generations on her sire’s side as well.
White Winged Dove was following Aruna’s winning ways at Keeneland, with that mare the winner of the 2011 Spinster Stakes (G1) among her five stakes victories. Placing in 12 of her 18 starts, Aruna’s three additional stakes placings include the Diana Stakes (G1) at Saratoga.
Aruna is a daughter of multiple graded stakes winner Surya and a half-sister to Grade 2 winner Hoop Of Colour and stakes-placed Namaskara.
The sire of 58% winners to runners with six stakes winners and 11 stakes performers, KARAKONTIE has graded stakes winners on both dirt and turf – including runners in both the Kentucky Derby and a British classic from his first crop.