Karakorum Elektra Up for Third in Lena Spencer

by Sarah Mace

Eleven fillies and mares three and up broke from the gate in the first race on Saratoga’s final Saturday card, the $70,000 Lena Spencer Stakes run at 5 ½ furlongs on the turf, among them a Linda Rice-trained quartet of New York-bred mares. Except for heavy favorite, Rose Catherine, the field was wide open. Of the New York-breds, Canadian Ballet spent the race dueling the pace setter, but in the end it was Karakorum Elektra who hit the board, making a late run to get in a photo with the runner-up Broken Dreams a length behind the favorite.

Karakorum Farm’s Karakorum Elektra, a six-year-old daughter of New York sire Freud, went off at long odds (29-to-1) under Ramon Dominguez, but nine of the eleven fillies and mares in the field were bet to double digits. Winless in two starts this year, Karakorum Elektra was looking to return to her turf sprint form of 2009, when she won three races, including her first stakes (Belmont’s open Memories of Silver Stakes last October going six furlongs on good turf), and earned over $100,000.

Canadian Ballet (second choice in the wagering at 7-to-1, co-high weight of the field with New York-bred Lady Rizzi, and looking for a second consecutive victory after taking the Jenny Wade Handicap at Penn National on July 30^th) broke on top, but Bobby Flay’s Stormandaprayer, making her first turf start, bulled her way up to the front on the inside, leaving Canadian Ballet to assume the role of dueling the pace-setter. Favorite Rose Catherine tracked in third only two lengths off the lead.

The running positions of the front three remained unchanged for the first three furlongs, and the opening quarter, as Stormandaprayer and Canadian ballet duked it out up front, was a torrid 21.20. Meanwhile Karakorum Elektra ran in ninth position at the hedge more than nine lengths off the lead and eventual runner-up Broken Dreams, also reserved the hedge, ran in seventh. At the top of the stretch Canadian Ballet poked a head in front of Stormandaprayer, but the two were now joined by Rose Catherine, and the three ran for several strides shoulder-to-shoulder. Rose Catherine, however, took charge and the speedy pace setters had to yield to the closers. Broken Dreams closed in the three path with good energy to get up for second, while Karakorum Elektra advanced up the two path to make her bid, split rivals at the sixteenth pole, and missed second only by a neck. Canadian Ballet finished fifth. After a half in 43.95, the final time of the race over a firm turf course was 1:01.52. The third-place finish increased Karakorum Elektra’s earnings to $276,777 and improved her record to 7-5-1 in 23 starts.

Bred by the SHHS, LLC and foaled at Keane Stud[1] in Amenia, Karakorum Elektra is the best of four New York-bred winners (and only black type runner) of five foals to start from Puddin Time, an unraced daughter of Double Negative. Only once through the auction ring, Karakorum Elektra was purchased by Fredericktown Farms from the Fasig-Tipton 2005 Saratoga Preferred New York-bred Yearling sale for $6,500. Her sire Freud, leading New York stallion in 2008 and 2009 and currently second in the New York Sire rankings stands for Sequel Stallions[2] at Keane Stud[3].

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2010/09/04/karakorum-elektra-lena-spencer/

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