Caroline Krystyna could give Brion (sort of) first flat stakes win * The Racing Biz

Caroline Krystyna could give Brion (sort of) first flat stakes win

Frank Vespe
June 17, 2023

Trainer Keri Brion has four Grade 1 steeplechase victories to her credit and an Eclipse Award for champion steeplechaser on her shelf, that last, and three of the Grade 1 wins, going to The Mean Queen in 2021.

She even has a couple of stakes wins in flat races – but contested at jump meets.

“I don’t count those,” she said with a laugh.

That leaves as her next challenge earning a stakes win on the flat at a conventional flat track. She’ll try to secure that achievement Sunday at Laurel Park when she sends out debut maiden winner Caroline Krystyna, owned by Sterbenz Racing LLC, in the grassy, 5 ½-furlong Stormy Blues Stakes for three-year-old fillies.

“She’s training awesome,” the 32-year-old Brion said of the daughter of Oscar Performance. “I couldn’t be happier with how she’s doing going into this. So, fingers crossed.”

Brion was interviewed on Saturday’s Off to the Races Radio-Maryland (click below). The one-hour program airs each Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. on WNST AM-1570 and is archived on The Racing Biz website.

Caroline Krystyna was a $50,000 auction purchase for Sterbenz Racing at Keeneland’s September 2021 yearling sale but did not make it to the races until May of her sophomore season. She impressed the trainer as soon as she arrived at Brion’s Fair Hill stable, however.

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“We were really high on her. She’s one of those horses that does everything right in the morning,” Brion explained. “She’s a little bit unassuming because she just goes about her business. But there’s always an engine there.”

That engine was on display in her debut facing fillies and mares at Pimlico on the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes undercard, Under jockey Carol Cedeno, Caroline Krystyna shot right to the front, threw down an opening quarter-mile of 21.72 seconds, opened a four-length lead late, and coasted home clear to win while covering five furlongs in 56.43 seconds.

“She broke and Carol didn’t have to do too much,” Brion said.

“I was expecting her to come out and run a good race,’ the trainer added. “Quite like that? I don’t think you’re ever quite expecting them to do that first time out, but I wasn’t super-surprised.”

Caroline Krystyna is 4-1 on the morning line, making her the third choice in a compact, seven-horse field. Cedeno has the return mount.

The 7-5 morning line favorite is the George Weaver-trained My Sweet Affair, who will have Feargal Lynch in the irons. She is stakes-placed after a third-place finish in the Limestone Stakes at Keeneland.

Carolina Krystyna has certainly been training like she’s ready. She posted two bullet works immediately prior to her debut score and has since followed up with two more bullet moves, most recently breezing a half-mile in 47 ⅖ over Fair Hill’s all-weather training surface with Cedeno in the irons. It was the fastest of 13 moves at the distance.

The Stormy Blues is the eighth race on a nine-race program.