BY GREGORY A. HALL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Keeper Hill (4) heads toward the finish line neck-in-neck with Banshee Breeze.
(Craig Ruttle photo)
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LOUISVILLE -- Before Friday's Kentucky Oaks, John Chandler, the owner of Keeper Hill, saw James Tafel, the owner of Banshee Breeze. Chandler wished Tafel, a friend with whom he had owned horses, luck.
"I said to him before the race, "You know if I can't win it I really sincerely hope you will.' "
The pleasantries ceased as Keeper Hill made up a five-length deficit in the stretch to beat Banshee Breeze by a neck at the wire. "At the sixteenth pole, I said, "I really don't hope that,' " Chandler said. "I hope I can win it."
David Flores, Keeper Hill's jockey, wasn't worried coming from behind as the horses reached Churchill Downs' 2-furlong home stretch.
"I knew the one in front of me, it was going to stop sooner or later," he said.
The crowd saw through Keeper Hill's second-place finish in her last race, the Santa Anita Oaks, where she stumbled at the start. "I thought she was the best that day (too)," trainer Bobby Frankel said.
Keeper Hill jockey David Flores raises his whip in celebration after crossing the finish line.
(Gary Landers photo)
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Keeper Hill paid $8.60 for a $2 win bet as the favorite in Friday's race.
"She looked great in the paddock today," Frankel said. "I knew if she ran the way she looked, she was going to be a winner." Keeper Hill was Chandler's first Oaks starter since 1975.
"It's been that long since we've had one good enough to run here," he said. "We are absolutely overjoyed."
The Oaks win was a first for Frankel.
"I guess I have a right to brag a little," he said.
Really Polish finished third after bumping Occhi Verdi at the start.
"It wasn't the quick pace we were hoping to get, plus we got squeezed back leaving" the starting gate, jockey Alex Solis said.
Nurse Goodbody, winner of the Bourbonette Stakes at Turfway Park, finished sixth. Jockey Willie Martinez said the race set up with his filly running on the rail, where she prefers to go outside other horses.
A crowd of 94,415 wagered $10,217,798 for Oaks day records.
• Surprises rule of day
• Sullivan column
• Pitino fulfills dream
• Notebook
• Lacombe diary
• The field
• Associated Press coverage
