Celestine Flaunts Her Class in Sand Springs

New owner. New trainer. Same old Celestine.

The match race on paper in the $100,000 Sand Springs Stakes came to life over the Gulfstream Park turf March 4 with Celestine gunning to the front and having more than enough to turn back fellow grade 1 winner Catch a Glimpse en route to earning a stylish win in her seasonal bow and debut for her new connections. 

Previously trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott for owner Phaedrus Flights, Celestine was purchased by Moyglare Stud Farm for $2.55 million at the 2016 Keeneland November breeding stock sale and transferred to the barn of Christophe Clement.

The 5-year-old daughter of Scat Daddy validated the decision to keep her and her top-level form in training. With both herself and Catch a Glimpse possessing ample early speed, jockey Jose Ortiz gave Celestine a deft ride when he hustled his mount to the lead over her main challenge out of the outside post and was able to carve out fractions of :23.95 and :48.25 for a half mile en route to kicking clear in midstretch for Celestine's first triumph since her victory in the Longines Just a Game Stakes (G1T) last June 11.

"I'm very lucky. She's a top class mare trained by Mr. Mott last year and she came to us in great condition," Clement said. "I left (strategy) up to (Ortiz). I called him before the race to give him instructions but with two horses with speed in the race, I told him do whatever you want."

Both Celestine and Catch a Glimpse were making their first starts since respective, disappointing outings at the 2016 Breeders' Cup with the former finishing 12th in the Turf Sprint (G1T) and the latter running eighth in the Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).

The Gulfstream surface has been good to Celestine in the past as the dark bay mare broke her maiden there in March 2015 and also captured the Honey Fox Stakes (G2T) last April for her first graded score. Her back class was respected in the form of 3-5 favoritism in the seven-horse Sand Springs field and she ran up to her billing, hitting the wire in 1:34.59 for the mile test over a course rated firm.

Catch a Glimpse, the 2015 Canadian Horse of the Year, held for second after chasing the winner throughout with Lori's Store third and Always Thinking fourth. 

Celestine paid out $3.40, $2.20 and $2.10 across the board and improved her career mark to seven wins from 15 career starts.