NYRA/Joe Labozzetta
By Sarah Mace
Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch’s 7-year-old Kharafa (Kitalpha) became a member of the millionaires’ club at Belmont Park on Saturday afternoon, when he won his third $125,000 Ashley T. Cole Stakes by three-quarters of a length. The gelding, who has 12 wins – including seven stakes victories – 11 seconds and five thirds from 38 career now boasts a bankroll of $1,026,997.
Still looking for his first victory of 2016, Kharafa delivered extremely strong performances in his last two outings. He finished second by neck in the Grade 3 Oceanport on July 31 to Blacktype, who came back to win the Grade 2 Commonwealth Stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday. Next out he finished second by a nose in Saratoga’s 1 1/16-mile West Point on August 26 to arch-rival King Kreesa, who went gate to wire to win the contest. Kharafa stood to profit from the longer 9-furlong distance of the Cole, and also sported a strong Belmont Park resume coming in: 7-6-2 from 19 starts.
For first three-quarters of a mile of the Cole, the front end belonged to the two longshots of the field.
Latigo Trail, 39-1, led the way. The uncoupled stablemate of Tapitation was presumably entered to discharge “rabbit” duties. Another outsider Harbor King (23-1) followed in second and King Kreesa tracked in third. The early fractions were unexpectedly tepid, though, for a rabbit: 24:95, 50.98 and 1:15.38. Meanwhile Kharafa lurked in the pocket at the fence in fourth, three lengths behind the leader.
NYRA/Chelsea Durand
Asked for run as he angled out two-wide into the stretch, Kharafa responded and took over with a little more than a furlong to go. All out in the final sixteenth, he held off the charge of Offering Plan, who closed into second from fifth and Tapitation, who rallied from well off the pace. Completing the order of finish were King Kreesa, who ran out of steam in the final sixteenth, Latigo Trail and Harbor King. After a mile in 1:38.81 over the “good” going, the final time of the race was 1:50.61. [VIDEO]
Jockey Anthony Gallardo, leading rider at Presque Isle Downs and making his Belmont Park debut, said, “I had a really good trip. I knew my horse, I rode him at Monmouth [in the Grade 3 Oceanport] and I feel really comfortable with him.”
Continued Gallardo, “Watching his race at Saratoga [the West Point] he tried all the time. He had good patience inside and a really good trip. In the clear he was full of run. He felt really good. You could see it in the form and with a little give in the ground the conditions were perfect for him today.”
Trainer Tim Hills said, “I wish all horses could be as consistent as he is. He gets good this time of the year; it’s like clockwork. He has two breezes before each race and he shows up ready to run. Ultra-consistent. If all goes well we’ll look at the Mohawk [October 22, Belmont Park].”
Kharafa was bred by Lawrence Durocher, Jr. who campaigned the gelding for first part of his racing career. After Durocher passed away in 2013, Kharafa won the Ashley T. Cole for the first time for Durocher’s estate and was then was sold by Durocher’s daughter Kate to Braverman, a Boston investment manager.
Foaled at Mill Creek Farm in Stillwater, Kharafa issues from the first North American crop of Kitalpha, a full brother to Kingmambo. He is out of Kentucky-bred Exquisite Cassie (King of Kings [IRE]), unraced, but a half-sister to multiple stakes-winning New York-bred Lovely Amanda ($376,450).
Exquisite Cassie, who has produced one other winner, was sold to Chadds Ford Stables for $20,000 at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale, and currently has a juvenile colt by E Dubai and a yearling colt by Union Rags. She was bred to Tapiture in the spring of 2016.
