LEXINGTON, Ky. – The featured eighth race Thursday at Keeneland comes infused with international flavor. Cima de Areco, unbeaten after four starts in her native Argentina, and a Group 1 winner there, makes her North American debut in a second-level turf allowance over 1 1/16 miles. She also makes her first start for her Japanese owners, Hironaga Hashimoto and Yuki Hashimoto, and for trainer Graham Motion, originally of England, now fairly thoroughly Americanized.
Motion hopes Cima de Areco also has become thoroughly Americanized. He said he spoke to trainer Ignacio Correas, an Argentine native to whom South American exports have flowed, concerning the best way to help a horse adapt to hemispheric change. Time, and plenty of it, is often the key. Cima de Areco last raced Nov. 2 and long passed the “six months minimum” guideline some believe South American horses require to properly adjust to life in the Northern Hemisphere.
“I’ve really taken my time with her. I think this is a good launching point,” Motion said.
Cima de Areco’s four wins – three on turf, one on dirt – have come by 18 1/2 combined lengths. She won her stakes debut by six lengths, then captured the Group 1 Enrique Acebal, an important 1 1/4-mile race for 3-year-old fillies, by two lengths.
Visually impressive in that start, where she drew steadily clear through the final furlong of a long homestretch, she follows in the hoofprints of Acebal winners Edict, currently a stakes horse in New York with David Donk; Bellagamba, a stakes winner for Correas; and, most notably, Didia, the Correas-trained Grade 1 winner.
“She’s probably a work or two away from it being ideal,” Motion said. “She does things very nicely in the morning.”
Drawn in post 1 with Tyler Gaffalione to ride, Cima de Areco figures to take up a midpack position. It’s possible she’ll need more distance for her best race. She may not need that Thursday.
Adding to the international intrigue is Partir, bred in France and campaigned there her first nine starts. Her American debut for Resolute Racing came in April at Keeneland, where, racing over yielding ground, she closed stoutly from 11th to finish third in a one-mile race at this class level. Lesser efforts followed in June and August, likely related to sun-baked firm turf courses.
“They buy some of these European horses that need soft turf,” said Riley Mott, who notched a training double Sunday. “She’s training well enough.”
Partir could get the ground she needs if forecast rain Tuesday into Tuesday night falls, and Cheetah Lady rates a look, too. Cheetah Lady’s last two starts were her first in turf routes, and she appears to have found her niche. A fondness for Kentucky Downs might have enhanced her performance, but Cheetah Lady was undeniably impressive sweeping to a 2 1/2-length first-level allowance win there.
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◗ Race 6, a turf sprint, is an allowance race open to 3-year-olds who haven’t won a graded turf race. Litigation, who has won three straight, appears to have been pointed toward this spot since not long after he won on Aug. 4 and would offer a touch of value at his listed 3-1 odds.
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