Jon Forbes
NYRA/Saratoga Race Course

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Keertana, racing a quarter-mile farther than she had ever had before, deftly handled the stretch out in the 15th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Glen Falls Handicap, the final stakes event of the 2010 meeting at Saratoga Race Course.

Second last time out in the one-mile De La Rose on Aug. 4, Keertana bided her time in seventh in the 1 3/8-mile Glens Falls behind fractions of 47.79 and 1:12.77. After commencing a steady rally along the hedge on the final turn, she blew by Casablanca Smile under vigorous hand urging with a sixteenth to travel and powered clear to score by 3¼ lengths, with odds-on favorite Forever Together making a mild rally to finish an additional 1¼ lengths back in third.

“We were way back, then I had to check, and after that I lost my whip,” said winning jockey Jose Lezcano. “I said ‘Oh man, I feel so bad; I’m going to lose this race.’ I love that my filly was able to win. When I asked her, she kicked it up very well. She had plenty of gas left.”

Keertana, who in 2009 won the one-mile Indiana Distaff and finished third in the Grade 1 Garden City, returned $12.80 for a $2 win wager as the 5-1 second choice and traversed the Inner Turf Course in 2:12.73. Her record now stands at 7-5-4 from 19 starts.

“Her daddy won at a mile and a half, and her mother’s father wanted to go a mile, so I figured a mile and three eighths would be perfect,” said trainer Tom Proctor of the 4-year-old Johar filly out of the Storm Cat mare Motokiks. “She was back a lot farther [than I expected,] but when they went 47 and change, that was pretty good.”

Proctor added that he is considering the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf on November 5 for Keertana, with a possible start in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational on October 2 in the interim.

Striking Dancer, Sweet and Flawless, Kiawah Cat, Go Ask Alex, and Beauty O’ Gwaun completed the order of finish.