More Stakes Success for Sandiva
Irish bred mare Sandiva (6m Footstepsinthesand x Miss Corinne, by Mark of Esteem) made it back to back wins in the $150,000 Grade III Marshua’s River Stakes at Gulfstream for Al Shaqab Racing.
A quality mare with Graded wins in the UK, France and the US already on her resume, the Todd Pletcher trained Sandiva had not won a race since capturing this feature last year.
She took the 1 and 1/16th mile contest on turf by half length with Javier Castellano in the saddle.
“She’s a very straightforward classy horse who improves every year,” offered Castellano.
“She never gets lazy. She does her own thing and enjoys herself. Todd [Pletcher] has done a phenomenal job bringing her back every single year. I liked the way she did it today. I had a perfect trip. It set up good because there was a lot of speed in the race.”