Back in the fall, it seemed like trainer Tim Keefe couldn’t win a race at Laurel Park. Keefe, a longtime Maryland fixture and winner of over 600 career races, won just four times from 71 starts at the fall meet.

Once the calendar turned to January, though, Keefe’s luck turned with it. He’s 9-for-30 at the current Laurel meet with over $300,000 in earnings, more than he logged in the fall. On Saturday he notched his first stakes win of the year when Too Many Kisses ran down Royal Whisper to win the $75,000 Conniver Stakes for Maryland-bred or -sired fillies and mares at Laurel Park.

Keefe’s nine wins are tied for fourth-most among trainers at the current Laurel meet. His 30% strike rate is the highest of any trainer with more than 20 starts.

“I’m not doing anything different than I was doing before,” Keefe said afterwards. “It’s just how the horses cycle around. I can’t explain why.”

Too Many Kisses, a four-year-old Arrogate filly, was bred in Maryland by Keefe and Mr. and Mrs. Charles McGinnes, who also bred Not for Love Stakes winner Take a Hint. The McGinnesses co-own Too Many Kisses with Francis Clemens.

With her first stakes win, Too Many Kisses improved to 3-for-7 in her career and became the first Keefe trainee to win twice this year.

“[A friend] said to me years ago, ‘You are the hottest trainer and you are the coldest trainer. You can be red hot one day and ice cold the next day,’” Keefe said resignedly but, after a stakes win, not too resignedly.

Too Many Kisses, with Forest Boyce in the irons, was last early in the Conniver, more than 10 lengths behind after a half-mile in 46.04 seconds. At the other end of the spectrum, Royal Whisper had secured a clear lead of 2 ½ lengths after a half mile.

Boyce was able to save ground rounding the turn in the seven-furlong contest before coming between horses as she and her mount began to make steady progress. But even with an eighth of a mile to go, it seemed Royal Whisper had established too big an advantage; she led by 3 ½ lengths.

“With her pedigree, we were hoping to get black type,” Keefe said. “At the sixteenth pole, I thought, I hope I can get up for third. She just kept coming and coming and coming.”

She caught the leader in deep stretch and went on to win by 1 ¼ lengths in 1:25.76 for seven furlongs. Royal Whisper held second, while Bay Street finished third. Golden Tabby, the 4-5 post time favorite, was eased and vanned off after bleeding from both nostrils.

“Forest [Boyce] fits her to a ‘T,’” Keefe said of Boyce, who has now been aboard Too Many Kisses for four consecutive starts.

The race, as all stakes races are (and soon, all races will be), was contested without the use of the anti-bleeding medication Lasix. For most of the runners in that race, that was something they have done infrequently, if at all.

Too Many Kisses, on the other hand, has made six of her seven starts without it. After a poor debut with Lasix, Keefe went to racing without, and his filly has improved by leaps and bounds.

“Lasix is a great medication for a lot of horses. It’s not for everybody,” Keefe said. “You don’t need lasix for every single horse like everybody thinks you do. But this filly just fell apart on it. She got thumps. She just washed out, and she was a mess. So I talked to Cynthia [McGinnes]: we’ve taken her off Lasix, and we’ll go slow with her.”

Too Many Kisses paid $11.60 to win while topping an exacta that returned $47.40 for a one-dollar wager. 

Soon Keefe walked off to have a glass of champagne to celebrate his stakes win. And a red-hot winter that’s allowed him to put a sluggish fall in the rearview mirror.

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