Ashiana Earns Spot in Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Description:
Eckhard Sauren's Ashiana became the sixth horse to qualify for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) through the Breeders' Cup Challenge series this year when she surged to the front in the final furlong to win 1 1/2-mile T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis (G2) at Baden-Baden Racecourse Sept. 2 by a half-length over Diana Storm.
"We were hoping for a place, but she won," said Sauren, who is president of the Cologne Race Club. "We'll see what we do next, but a start in the Breeders' Cup is a possibility."
As a part of the benefits of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series, the Breeders' Cup will pay the pre-entry and entry fees for Ashiana to start in the 1 1/8-mile Filly & Mare Turf. Breeders' Cup will also provide a $40,000 travel allowance for all starters based outside of North America to compete in the World Championships.
Ashiana, a 3-year-old chestnut filly by Mastercraftsman trained by Peter Schiergen and ridden by Andrasch Starke, won her third race in eight starts. She defeated 10 fillies and mares as the 4.3-1 third choice and completed the 12 furlongs in 2:35.11 over a course listed as good.
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The winner came into the race following a fifth-place finish in the 1 3/8-mile Henkel-Preis der Diana (German Oaks, G1) Aug. 6 at Dusseldorf. Prior to the German Oaks, she won listed stakes against 3-year-old fillies at Baden-Baden May 27 and at Hannover July 9.
The T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis was the sixth Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf qualifier thus far in 2017. Bela-Bela was the first to qualify when she took the Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes (G1) at Kenilworth in South Africa in January. Foxplay (AUS) captured the Coolmore Legacy Queen of the Turf Stakes (G1) at Royal Randwick in Australia in April, and was followed by Birdie Gold, who won the Gran Premio Pamplona (G1) at Hipodromo de Monterrico in Peru in June. Dacita was the most recent qualifier in this division, when she won the Beverly D. Stakes (G1T) at Arlington International Racecourse Aug. 12. Enable was a dominant winner last month in the Darley Yorkshire Oaks (G1) at York.