TDN RISING STARS

June 26, 2024 - Churchill Downs, Race 4, Msw, USD $120,000, 4 1/2F

Anakarina, F, 2, 2022 by Vekoma

1st Dam: Tacit Approval, by Tapit
2nd Dam: Punch Appeal, by Successful Appeal
3rd Dam: Okanagan Dawn, by Two Punch

Owner: Dream Team One Racing Stable
Breeder: Dream Team Racing (KY)
Trainer: Dallas Stewart

Dream Team One Racing Stable's well-related Anakarina (f, 2, Vekoma–Tacit Approval, by Tapit) catapulted her boom freshman sire (by Candy Ride {Arg}) back into the lead for first-crop winners (with nine) after blitzing her rivals from the front Wednesday at Churchill Downs to become a 'TDN Rising Star'. Vekoma leapfrogs Complexity, who was represented by his eighth winner earlier on the program in the form of Sweet Mo B.

A homebred half-sister to the globetrotting Grade II Cigar Mile Handicap hero Hoist the Gold (Mineshaft), MGSW & MGISP, $1,411,297, Anakarina was off at odds of 3.89-1 and hit the ground running from the three hole, leading a good-looking and well-pedigreed bunch on paper through an opening quarter-mile in :22.05. Showing no signs of stopping around the turn and into the stretch, Anakarina remained under light hand urging from Tyler Gaffalione past a half in :44.99 and kept on nicely to graduate by three lengths.

Reliable Source (Volatile), off at an overlaid odds touching 9-1 from a 3-1 morning line, was shuffled back to about third last with two furlongs to race, but made stealthy inside progress in the stretch and split rivals with good energy to complete the exacta. Empress Julia (Uncle Mo) drew in from the also-eligibles and ran well from her widest draw to be a half-length behind Reliable Source in third. Favored And One More Time (Omaha Beach) finished seventh, beaten 6 1/2 lengths, but galloped out with the winner around the turn.

Anakarina was bet into 12-5 for her career debut going five furlongs over a rain-affected local strip May 17 and was a forward factor before fading to fifth.

Vekoma, whose New Jersey-bred son of Elusively topped Tuesday's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June Sale, ended breeze-up sales season as the sixth-leading first-crop sire, with his juveniles having fetched up to $800,000.