KEERTANA TO WINDSHARP

It always fascinates me when a stakes winner’s pedigree holds a name that I have had an association with. This is very much the case when Johar’s daughter, Keertana, who won The Very One Handicap (Gr 3) on Gulfstream Park’s turf track, to record her fourth stakes win. Having spent the 2001 breeding and yearling seasons at Mill Ridge Farm, this was the home of both Johar’s sire, Gone West (Mr Prospector), and dam, Windsharp (Lear Fan).

The fact that Johar has produced such a useful turf performer as Keertana, who is his sire’s leading performer to date, is certainly not surprising. Johar was a top-class performer on the grass having won the 2003 Breeders’ Turf, when dead-heating with High Chaparral in one of most exciting Breeders’ Cup finishes. With Keertana also being from the family of Britain’s Select Stakes (Gr 3) winner, Knifebox, and German Listed winner, Catoki, she certainly the pedigree for the turf.

Johar’s dam, Windsharp (pictured), was also a Champion on the turf. However in many ways Windsharp story is a rag to riches story as she started her life in humble beginning. Bred by David Brillembourg Windsharp, who was out of the a winning grand-daughter of the stakes winner Yes Sir (Sir Gaylord), only realised $8,500 to Agence Fips at Keeneland’s September 1992 yearling sale.

Sent to France to be trained J C Rouget, Windsharp did not make her debut until she end of April, 1994, of her three-year-old career. She soon made up of her late start by winning three races as well as finishing fourth in a Listed race.

She started her four-year-old season in France where she added a further two wins as well as gaining black-type with a second in the Grand Prix De Dax Docteur Branere and a third in the Grand Prix d'Aquitaine before moving to the barn of Wally Dollace, in the US, in a deal done by Peter Bradley of Bradley Thoroughbred Brokerage. Racing under the name of Richard Stephen, Windsharp finished runner-up in the Long Island Handicap (Gr 2) to Juddmonte Farm’s Yenda (Dancing Brave), who went on the become the dam of Gr 3 winner Notable Quest (Kingmambo), on her first start. She concluded her 1995 year with a win in the Reloy Stakes (L).

Windsharp continued to improve as a five-year-old as she won the both the San Luis Rey Stakes (Gr 1T), when beating the males, and the San Luis Obispo Handicap (Gr 2T). These performances, which also included second San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap (Gr 1), caught the attentions of Thoroughbred Corporation as they became partners in the ownership. Windsharp continued to race at the highest level which included a respectable 5th to Pilsudski (Polish Precedent) in the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr 1).

Windsharp’s final season in training was her 1997 season where she won three of her four stakes which on only included the Santa Ana Handicap (Gr 2) but the Beverly Hills Handicap (Gr 1), on her final start.

Windsharp got off to the best possible start at the paddocks having produced Johar from her first foal of 1999 (having been line-bred top both Mix Marriage and Somethingroyal). She second foals also proved a Gr 1 winner as Dessert; a daughter of Storm Cat won the De Mar Oaks (Gr 1) as a three-year-old in August 2003. It was therefore not surprising that Windsharp, when the Thoroughbred Corporation had their dispersal realised $6,100,000 at Keeneland’s 2003 November breeding stock sale to John Ferguson, on behalf of Darley.

Moving back to Keertana; who is out the Strom Cat daughter Motokiks and therefore bred on the Gone West/Strom Cat cross. It is not surprising that this cross has work for Johar. Not only has this cross proved very successful for the Gone West sire-line, having produced 21 stakes, which number Gr 1 winners Crisp (El Corredor), Speightstown (Gone West) and Saoirse Abu (Mr Greeley), but the Strom Cat line has also a strong affiliation with Johar’s family. CWC