WON: G.S.R. Derby(G1), G.S.R. Oaks(G1), Adelaide Oaks(G1), Birmingham Stakes(G1), Triage Distaff(G3), The Senorita Valet Handicap
2nd: Panhandle Park Oaks(G3)
3rd: I'm Lost Handicap(G2), Samsone's Distaff(G2)

Krishna: A Holy Terror Among Three-Year-Old Fillies

By- Chilcoat

I learned to respect Krishna the hard way: by watching her trounce one of my best horses. I had Sacrilege primed for the G3 Triage Distaff – a 14-furlong turf affair. A surface and distance at which she was almost unbeatable. No worries, right? I casually scanned the field and saw the name Krishna. Hmm….I’d seen that before a time or two, I thought. I saw that she’d won the Grade I GSR Oaks at ten furlongs on the dirt. Impressive, but quite different from this race. But, holy cow, she’d also won the GSR Derby at 12 furlongs on the turf…..against the boys. Uh oh. I became concerned, and rightly so, as Paceman2’s Krishna won easily and garnered her fifth graded win of the year.  So, now I am tremendously pleased to have the honor of writing up an accolade for a horse I truly believe is one of the very best out there. She’s beaten her elders, she’s won on both surfaces, she’s beaten the boys – all in graded company. There’s not much else you can ask. She has earned this award and then some.

Krishna is a tall and lanky chestnut daughter of Theatrical, out of a Kris S. x Nashua mare. “She looked gorgeous when I got my hands on her,” comments Paceman2, “but she obviously had some maturing to do.” 

That’s exactly how she ran her freshman year – with undeniable talent, but the pieces weren’t all there yet. She broke her maiden at first asking on the turf. She moved immediately to stakes company and won again. “I was pretty excited at that point,” the trainer notes. She took the next step up to graded company…and promptly bombed, finishing way back in two straight graded races. “She just wasn’t ready for prime time,” laments Paceman2.

The filly dropped back into minor stakes company, where she was much more comfortable, scoring another win. Encouraged, Paceman2 sent her back into graded territory, but it was the same story as before and she earned her third 8th-place finish in three graded starts. “She was bred to mature later and run longer, so I wasn’t too concerned,” says the trainer, “but I certainly wondered just what kind of filly I had.”

Hope springs eternal, and thus Krishna made her three-year-old debut in the Grade III Panhandle Oaks. In a big improvement, she came from well back to finish second. She followed up that race with yet another minor stakes victory. Buoyed by these performances, she made her next start in the Grade I Train Yard, where she failed spectacularly, finishing dead last by 29 lengths. She followed that bomb with a more competitive fourth (by 2 lengths) in the Grade I Victoria Turf Special.

So, to summarize, the filly had never lost outside of graded races, but had hit the board only once in five graded attempts. Was it time to throw in the towel and accept that she was just a very nice minor stakes horse without the heart for graded races? 

Well, no. It was time to stretch her out and it was at last the time of year when Paceman2 had the opportunity to do so. Krishna was entered in the 12-furlong Grade I Adelaide Oaks on the turf and we finally, finally had the opportunity to see just how good this girl was. She broke slowly, as usual, but had plenty of time to build her momentum in this race. Krishna ate up the ground as she closed on the competition and ran like she would never run out of steam, beating a nice field by 7 ½ and finishing the course in 2:31. That was the filly Paceman2 had been waiting to see. But could she handle the dirt, too?

She had never tried until now, but she had the opportunity in the ten-furlong Samsone’s Distaff, where she finished a respectable third. “She looked a little sore coming out of that one,” says Paceman2 “She wasn’t quite lame, but I decided better safe than sorry and gave her a few months off. She’d earned the rest.”

She rewarded that decision with a victory and a whopping 115 speed figure in the ten furlong Grade I Birmingham Stakes on the dirt. Two weeks later, she shortened up to nine furlongs and finished a distant fourth in the Princess Di.

It was the last time she would run such a short race. Then she ran third in the Grade II I’m Lost. Next came the biggest trial of her career, the GSR Derby for all three-year-olds at 12 furlongs on the turf. The GSR Derby is one of the sport’s premier events and many of the top runners could be expected. Krishna faced them all boldly, though, coming from twelve lengths back to wallop the classy field by five lengths.

The Derby was only two weeks before the Breeder’s Bowl and it was a tired but game filly who took on the best of the best in the BB Turf, one of the very toughest races in an absolutely brutal division. She did just fine, finishing midpack. Three weeks later was another important race, the GSR Oaks at ten furlongs on the dirt. Krishna proved her versatility by taking on some of the best three-year-old fillies in the classic division and winning by three in 2:01.4. She tired in her next outing, the Winterthur Oaks, but was good and ready to take on her elders (unfortunately for me) in the 14-furlong Triage Distaff, rounding out her stellar season with a decisive marathon win.

And that, racing fans, is just the story so far. With only 20 races under her belt at the end of her three-year-old season, we can most likely expect to hear a lot from this girl this year. If you have a horse, male or female, either surface, who likes to go long, watch out.