10/19/19 | Lexington, KY – Dare To Dream Stable’s Star of Kodiak may not have shocked his connections, but he sure shocked the betting public at Keeneland today in race #10! The 3-year-old son of Ready’s Image used a powerful, sweeping move to circle a tough field of allowance horses and out finish the favored Chad Brown trainee Sayyaff to win the 5 1/2 furlong turf event at odds of 23-1. Star of Kodiak was coming off an ultra-impressive maiden victory in his first start on the grass at Arlington Park last time out. Dare To Dream Stable’s trainer Chris Davis was pretty confident that “Star” would take another move forward based on how he was training and boy was Chris right.

In a full field of 12 in the $73,000 allowance event, Star of Kodiak drew the outside 11 post under the guidance of regular stable rider Mitchell Murrill. The handsome dark bay son of Ready’s Image broke beautifully. He immediately was put in a terrific position by Murrill outside the leading pack in the clear. After the opening quarter, which was run in 22.0 flat, Star of Kodiak was in 6th but just a few lengths off the leaders. With seemingly a ton of momentum, Murrill swung “Star” into the six path in the turn. When they completed the turn, Murrill got after Star, who started picking off horses one by one and set his sights on the favored Sayyaff who had built up a two-length lead. Star of Kodiak continued to rally down the lane and drove past Sayyaff in the final stages to be 3/4 clear at the wire in a snappy final time of 1:03.10. It was another 2 1/2 lengths to the 3rd place finisher. This was Star of Kodiak’s 2nd victory to go along with a second-place finish in five starts with earnings of $60,780.

A big hearty congrats to all the happy partners, many of whom took advantage of the generous odds to leave them all a little wealthier than when they woke up that morning. Kudos to young gun trainer Chris Davis, his assistant Mynor Ortiz, and the entire staff on an incredible training job. Star of Kodiak has really progressed over the past few months and now has a very bright future, including some forays into stakes company. Finally, to our guy Mitchell Murrill who once again gave us a terrific ride and was very confident in “Star” after working him the past two times in the morning. Mitchell rode a picture-perfect race and showed again he can ride with the best of them.

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