LEXINGTON, Ky. – Seeing Godolphin silks come back to the winner’s circle after a graded stakes race at Keeneland is a common sight. The relatively few souls that braved a cold, wet, miserable opening day on Sunday caught sight of them after the Beaumont Stakes, in which Verity ran down pacesetting odds-on favorite Stunner and won the Beaumont by 5 1/4 lengths.
A far, far less common site: Seeing jockey Vincent Cheminaud wearing the Godolphin silks at Keeneland. Cheminaud, after all, had ridden a mere nine Keeneland winners before Saturday since moving his tack from France to America three years ago. But before he made the overseas move, Cheminaud regularly was employed by Godolphin when riding first-call for trainer Andre Fabre, and in fact finished third for Godolphin with Cloth of Stars in Enable’s 2018 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Cheminaud didn’t receive Keeneland’s standard post-graded stakes feting after the Beaumont: The cold rain had begun falling again, and photos of the exuberant winners came in the tunnel between the grandstand and the paddock, rather than out in infield. Cheminaud wasn’t complaining: He’d just ridden his first Keeneland stakes winner.
And after doing so, he came back with those blue silks nearly free of the track’s sea of slop. Verity broke from the outside gate in a five-runner field, Cheminaud determined from the start to keep his filly clean.
“You never know with a track like this how they’re respond to the kickback,” Cheminaud said.
Somewhat slow to load, Verity broke sharply, allowing Cheminaud to keep pacesetting Stunner in his sites, racing about one length behind the leader, ridden by fellow Frenchman Flavien Prat, through an opening quarter-mile in 22.22. Verity crept closer into the turn, holding her position comfortably, while just behind and outside her 3-2 second choice G W’s Girl came under a ride in a fruitless bid to stay in contact.
Prat let Stunner’s speed out a notch at a time, getting her half-mile in a robust 44.89, but Verity wasn’t going away. She collared Stunner at the three-sixteenths pole and by the furlong grounds had sewn up the Grade 2, $400,000 Beaumont.
Verity, brought along nicely this winter into spring by trainer Eoin Harty, missed by a nose debuting Dec. 1 in a Churchill Downs dirt sprint. Luis Saez rode the filly that day, but Cheminaud piloted Verity to maiden and first-level allowance victories over Turfway Park’s Tapeta surface.
“I was confident she’d run well on dirt,” Cheminaud said.
Stunner had no answer for Verity but finished almost five lengths clear of Volleyballprincess, as G W’s Girl’s two-race winning streak was snapped with a fourth-place finish. Continuity brought up the rear, and morning-line favorite Eclantat was scratched. Her trainer, Brad Cox, said Eclatant had gotten sick.
Racing over the Beard Course at seven furlongs, 184 feet Verity clocked 1:27.18 on a sloppy, sealed surface. She paid $14.26 to win as the distant third choice.
A homebred, Verity is by Nyquist out of Moiety, by Bernardini. Harty also trained Moiety, a stakes winner whose first two foals to race had failed to win. Cheminaud has won before wearing those blue Godolphin silks – just not in a Keeneland stakes race until Sunday.
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