LEXINGTON, Ky. – Improvement in racehorses is not linear – except when it is. Simply in Front showed fairly high-level ability as a 2-year-old, came back a better 3-year-old and continued ascending during her 2024 campaign, hit a new peak early this year, and on Saturday at Keeneland won the Grade 1, $800,000 First Lady Stakes.
Not only did that mark the first Grade 1 win for Simply in Front, it was her first start at the level. Her trainer, Eddie Kenneally, made a fairly bold entry that paid off richly, while Simply in Front paid her backers $28.24.
“Her numbers keep getting better. She’s had a very good year,” Kenneally said. “This was a hard race to pass up.”
Simply in Front passed seven foes from the quarter pole to the finish, weaving between rivals and getting a final split in the last half-furlong as the man on her back, guiding her through the gaps, also notched his first Grade 1. Ben Curtis began his career about 18 years ago in Ireland and found ample success overseas, but, looking for even more, came to ride full time in America for the 2023-24 Fair Grounds season. Curtis rode as an exercise rider for fellow Ireland native Kenneally during winter 2012-13 in Florida, and Kenneally helped Curtis gain a foothold in New Orleans and Kentucky.
“I’ve won a load of Group 2s, I’ve been second in Group 1s, but it hadn’t happened,” Curtis said.
It happened with an excellent ride.
Curtis said he thought he might wind up as the third horse behind the leader while running on the rail, but Nanda Dea took that position, racing in sixth onto the backstretch of this turf mile, Simply in Front behind him. Curtis vacated the fence before the six-furlong marker and kept behind cover to the half-mile pole and around the turn. Simply in Front had run at the five-sixteenths pole, but was pushed well out into the track at the quarter pole while still racing from eighth.
From there, Curtis took over, his mount a willing partner. He steered inside and found room to begin his run, made another inside move splitting flagging rivals, and, when Deep Satin drifted slightly out, Curtis put Simply in Front into one final hole. The filly burst past Choisya, who had taken the lead in upper stretch, and held off a belated bid from Segesta to win by a neck.
Segesta broke alertly and took up a pressing position, pulling a little onto the backside, behind and outside pacesetting Raqiya. Displaced from her pressing position in upper stretch, Segesta found stride again in the last 100 yards and gained quickly just before the wire, falling a neck short.
“I had to use her a little bit to get a position, but down the backside I gave her a little breather,” jockey Flavien Prat said. “She made a good run.”
So did Choisya, who won the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley here in the spring and nearly took down the First Lady coming back to America from England. Frankie Dettori worked out an ideal pocket trip, but was forced to use his mount earlier than he wanted when Raqiya drifted off the rail with a quarter-mile to run. Choisya popped onto the lead and held it to deep stretch.
“I had to take the gap when it came, and once she got to the front, she thought she did enough,” Dettori said. “I could feel her put the brakes on.”
Deep Satin, who drew into the race after Simmering was scratched, finished a bang-up fourth despite having to break from post 12. She was just a head behind Choisya, with Pin Up Betty another head back in fifth. Tepid favorite Dynamic Pricing lagged at the rear of the field and rallied mildly for seventh. The winner was timed in 1:34.76 over a very firm grass course.
Simply in Front, who campaigns for John Burness’s Colebrook Farms, is by Summer Front and, with more than $2.8 million in the bank, is, by a country mile the stallion’s highest-earning son or daughter. She was produced by the Blame mare Complicated, and was bred in Kentucky by William Harrigan and Mike Pietrangelo. Burness is Canadian and Simply in Front was based at Woodbine with trainer Patrick Dixon as a 2-year-old before coming to Kenneally in Kentucky.
Now she is going on to Del Mar. The First Lady is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, but Simply in Front is a miler and wouldn’t suit the 1 3/8-mile Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. The Breeders’ Cup Mile, though, will come under consideration, Kenneally said, with the Goldikova Stakes as a backup.
The filly is getting good at the right time. Her jockey, Curtis, might not be a household name in America, but he has been good for a long time.
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