Sultana and Ayra Stark renew rivalry in Keertana Stakes at Churchill Downs

Sultana and Ayra Stark will meet again in a race that looks bigger than its listed condition. Churchill Downs’ $250,000 Keertana Stakes will go as Race 9 on Saturday’s 11-race card, with a 4:56 p.m. Eastern post time, and the 1 1/2-mile turf test will draw eight fillies and mares for its 13th running.

The matchup gives the ungraded Keertana the feel of a graded stakes. Sultana, a multiple Grade III winner, will return at 3-1 on the morning line with 120 pounds after stringing together three straight victories and winning four of her six starts. Junior Alvarado will ride for trainer Kevin Attard, a combination that matters in a race this demanding, where the trip can decide as much as raw ability. Sultana also brings a path that has already taken her from Florida to Woodbine and back south for this Churchill assignment.

Ayra Stark will stand in the way again, and she will arrive as the likely favorite at 9-5 with 118 pounds. Jose Ortiz will ride from post 3 for trainer Horacio De Paz. Churchill Downs lists her as a six-time winner from 15 starts, including a Group 2 victory in Argentina in 2024, and her recent stakes record shows why she remains such a serious threat: she has finished second in the Christophe Clement Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Florence Stakes at Turfway Park, while also putting together three consecutive runner-up stakes finishes.

The rest of the field gives the race real depth, not just a two-horse storyline. Golden Sunshine and Way to Be Marie both come out of the Bewitch Stakes at Keeneland, where Golden Sunshine was second and Way to Be Marie third. That form line adds another layer to a race that should tell horsemen and bettors whether the top older turf mares in this region are true stayers or simply high-class milers stretched to the limit.

Churchill Downs has also filled out the entry list with Awesomesauce, Virgin Colada, Queens Command, and Venencia, giving the Keertana the kind of breadth that can expose weaknesses at the distance. The race is for fillies and mares 4 and up, is run on turf with the rail set at 12 feet, and includes $50,000 from the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund.

The Keertana has long carried more weight than its ungraded label suggests. It was first run in 2013, when Treasured Up won the inaugural edition, and it is named for Keertana, who beat males in the 2011 Louisville Handicap at Churchill Downs and won four of her nine starts there. In a weekend that also features the male long-distance turf runners in the Louisville Stakes, this renewal should show where the upper tier of staying turf mares stands right now.