Marie G. Krantz Memorial is fit for Cherokee Queen

1/14/2012- Marie G. Krantz Memorial is fit for Cherokee Queen
By Ben Baugh

Clark Brewster's Cherokee Queen may have made her last start before going to the breeding shed a winning one, with a 1 1/4-length victory in the 1 1/16-mile Marie G. Krantz Memorial Handicap on the turf Saturday at the Fair Grounds.

The 7-year-old mare has been booked to stallion Malibu Moon for the 2012 breeding season, according to the Daily Racing Form. Cherokee Queen has scored consecutive stakes victories. The daughter of the 1994 Eclipse Award winning Sprinter Cherokee Run won the 1 1/16-mile Blushing K.D. Handicap over a yielding turf course on Dec. 17, coming from off the pace to win by a neck.

Cherokee Queen, the race's highweight, raced off the pace early in the Marie G. Krantz Memorial and was well in-hand, while being confidently ridden by jockey Shaun Bridgmohan. The mare would go to the outside and would uncoil a tremendous turn of foot eventually commandeering the lead in mid-stretch before drawing off to a convincing victory.

Cherokee Queen is trained by Steve Margolis, and picked up her 11th career victory on Saturday. The dark bay mare was bred by J. Mack Robinson, and was broken and trained in Aiken by Tim and Cary Frommer.

"I love the way she's running," said Cary Frommer, in a phone interview on Saturday evening. "She dug her head in and ran the field down."

Cherokee Queen increased her lifetime earnings to $613,312.

Godolphin Stable's Sangaree broke slowly in the 1-mile Grade 3 Hal's Hope Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The chestnut son of the 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Awesome Again would have to swing wide, and would close strongly to finish second, beaten by 1-length by the eventual winner Jackson Bend. Sangaree was bred by Robert and Janice McNair's Stonerside Stable, and is a half-brother to the 2002 Aiken Trained Horse-of-the-Year Congaree. The stakes winner trained by Kiaran McLaughlin has placed second in three of his last four starts, all stakes efforts. Sangaree increased his lifetime earnings to $365,710. The seven-year-old horse was broken and trained in Aiken by Tim Jones.