Karatbars’ return to action proves to be golden

The 5-year-old mare Karatbars has had a sparse racing career since she sold for $8,000 as a yearling at the October OBS sale in 2018. The daughter of Gone Astray raced just once as a 2-year-old, twice at three, and three times at four, and was just concluding a six-month layoff when she showed up in the second race at Gulfstream yesterday.

Karatbars was listed at 8-1 in the morning line for the race at 5 1/2 furlongs and trainer Juan Arias tapped Luis Reyes to guide her in her return. When the field left the gate, somebody who obviously knew something more than the average player knocked her price down to 6/5, and she didn’t disappoint.

Reyes put her on the lead and Karatbars went wire-to-wire, clocked in 1:05.85 and nearly two lengths in front. It was another nine lengths back to the third-place finisher. The victory was worth $10,400 to owner Larry Bell and his mare became Gone Astray’s 15th winner of 2022.