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Week In Pictures
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The gray horse streaking down the stretch to the lead at Keeneland on Sunday was capping off a big weekend for Canadian trainer Malcolm Pierce.
Sterwins, winning the $150,000 Grade III Ben Ali Stakes for Pierce and owner Eugene Melnyk, actually was completing the Pierce weekend exacta: the Ben Ali Stakes Sunday and the Giant's Causeway Stakes with Danceroftherealm on Saturday.
Sterwins paid $28.80, coming from last to win the 11/8-mile race on the Polytrack.
With Shaun Bridgmohan riding, Sterwins blew past the favorite, Go Between, in the stretch to defeat the latter by 31/4 lengths, Sir Whimsey following in third place in the field of six.
It wasn't the biggest race that Melnyk Racing Stables has won, for among the Canadian operation's credits has been the Breeders' Cup Sprint with Speightstown. Yet the Ben Ali was significant because the race revealed a new dimension for Sterwins.
The son of Runaway Groom had not previously raced on Polytrack, although he has notched winning races on the turf. It turns out he can run on three surfaces.
"This horse is a good horse on the dirt, too," Pierce pointed out. "He was second in the Queen's Plate. I don't think the surface is a big deal to this horse; he runs on all three surfaces."
But as Pierce said, now the stable knows it has options with 5-year-old Sterwins.
Go Between, the odds-on favorite in the 78th renewal of this race, came to Keeneland with credentials that included a victory in January in the Sunshine Millions Classic at Santa Anita and a second at that same track. He'd already proved himself on Keeneland's Polytrack, after winning the Fayette Stakes here last fall.
Sterwins arrived at Keeneland with his stable not even considering running him on the artificial surface.
"I brought this horse here thinking about running him in the Maker's Mark Mile," Pierce said. "We looked at the race, and it was coming up so tough that we decided to take a pass."
After passing on the grass, they opted for experimenting on Polytrack. Sterwins was collecting his sixth lifetime victory in the Ben Ali Stakes, running against the recent trend that has appeared to favor speed on the Keeneland synthetic track.
"He's one of those horses that always makes a nice run at the end," Bridgmohan said. The jockey recalled his instructions: he was to take Sterwins to the outside when making his final move turning for home, "and it made all the difference in the world."
Garrett Gomez, who finished second on the favorite, Go Between, said his mount flattened out when Sterwins went by him on the outside.
"His resistance just fell through," Gomez said. Go Between still managed to have a 11/4-length lead on the third-placed Sir Whimsey at the end.
Melnyk, the owner of Sterwins, was not at Keeneland. He is highly involved in racing, however, as well as in hockey, as sole owner of the Ottawa Senators in the National Hockey League.
