It seemed only fitting that jockey Ben Curtis' first grade 1 win would come aboard a horse trained by Eddie Kenneally.
"I came over for Eddie many moons ago. In the winter, there was no racing in Ireland, so I came over and (worked for him at Palm Meadows Training Center in Florida)," Curtis said.
"He used to tell me I was breezing them all wrong and getting it all wrong," Curtis remarked with a wry smile.
Curtis and Kenneally combined to win their first graded stakes together with the fast-improving Simply in Front in the $776,750 First Lady Stakes (G1T) Oct. 4 at Keeneland.
"It's great to come over here and get a big win like this for (Kenneally) because he put me on a lot of winners and really got me established," Curtis said.
Saturday's race was only the second time that Curtis had ridden Simply in Front. The first time came in the Aug. 30 Ladies Turf Sprint Stakes (G2T) at Kentucky Downs, where the pair fell three-quarters of a length short of catching Ag Bullet in a stirring stretch drive.
"The key was to get her to relax," Curtis said. "We've seen that finish she's produced a few times, at Ellis and Churchill. She really closes up the stretch. So I gave her every chance and when a seam came I put her in there and she did the rest. I just enjoyed the ride. She's a filly who enjoys her job."
Making her third start in grade 1 company (she placed in the Natalama Stakes (G1T) as a 2-year-old), Simply in Front's road to victory was "fairly seamless," according to Curtis. Laying well off the pacesetting Raqiya's early fractions of :22.95 and :47.07, Curtis and Simply in Front remained in eighth of 11 as the field turned for home, waiting for the perfect opening before making their move. Striking inside the eighth pole, the Summer Front filly accelerated with lightning quickness, engaging Jenny Wiley Stakes (G1T) winner Choisya and surging to the wire in a blanket finish.
Simply in Front ($28.24) crossed the finish just as her name suggested, besting the late-closing Segesta by a neck. She collected her first grade 1 title in a final time of 1:34.76 for the mile on a firm turf course.
Choisya, who had made a rail bid at the top of the lane, was third, a head better than Deep Satin in fourth.
"I think she deserves this," Kenneally said, securing his third career Keeneland grade 1 win. "She's a multiple graded stakes winner and was grade 1-placed. The icing on the cake is the grade 1, which she did today in a really prestigious race with a lot of history. This is certainly the place to get it done."
Owner Colebrook Farms purchased Simply in Front for $115,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. She is the first grade 1 winner for her sire, graded stakes winner Summer Front, who was sent to Haras El Aguila in Panama after standing at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky for eight seasons.
Simply in Front's dam, Complicated, has been a blue-hen producer for breeders William Harrigan and Mike Pietrangelo, who acquired the daughter of Blame for $110,000 at the 2016 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. With Simply in Front's First Lady success, the mare has now beget four stakes winners from five foals to race, including 2024 Natalma Stakes victress And One More Time (Omaha Beach ) and multiple graded stakes winner Honor D Lady (Honor Code).
Kenneally said Simply in Front would have one more race before the year's end and an eventual 5-year-old campaign in 2026.
"She'll run at Del Mar on Breeders' Cup weekend, possibly the Goldikova and we'll talk to John (Brnjas of Colebrook Farms) and his family and they may look at the boys' race, the Breeders' Cup Mile. Fillies have won that before and it's a flat mile. She's good right now."
