Keen's fortuitous claim

I don't have the exact ranking for you, but Saturday's 5th at Del Mar, won by Pure Indy, was a very fast 2-year-old-filly maiden special weight. It was faster than the first division by exactly two-fifths-of-a-second (both races were 5 1/2 furlongs), and it outdid the males in race 7 easily (although that race was at a mile). The time was nearly as good as the time for the Del Mar Debutante.

Finishing 2nd in the 5th was Controlled Chaos, who had not only ran and lost for $50,000 in her last start, but been beaten handily that day. Her Beyer was only 52.

She was claimed from that race, her career debut. With the sort of improvement she enjoyed Saturday, just over two weeks later, one assumes the new trainer is one of the usual suspects -- very likely PM. But the only Peter involved with Controlled Chaos was original trainer Peter Eurton.

Instead, Controlled Chaos's new trainer is Dallas Keen. I must confess that Dallas Keen has always been branded in my mind as the guy who trained Valhol, the infamous Arkansas Derby winner disqualified when his jockey used a battery. Keen has probably given me reason to know him since, but it seems my mind will just not let in the new information.

Keen has apparently been dogged running horses at Del Mar this year, compiling 29 starts entering Saturday's card. Unfortunately, he hadn't won any of them. Lime Rickey took Saturday's 3rd race for Keen (was the 2-1 favorite), getting him off the schneid, but his meet totals are still not pretty.

So in light of Keen's record, what do we make of Controlled Chaos showing stakes-winning potential Saturday? Did Keen just make an astute claim? Or does he often improve horses, and the ones that he's been running at Del Mar have been so bad this hasn't resulted in wins or even many near wins? If you're not making a lot of acquistions or claims, but just running horses you've had for a while, your positive role in the horses' performances might not be noticeable.

If the secret in the Controlled Chaos case is the horse and not a Peter Miller or Mike Mitchell Midas touch, again this is partially hidden because Controlled Chaos's debut for Eurton was so unremarkable. Then she runs for Keen against tougher and does better. So it looks like the key had to have been the training. But maybe Controlled Chaos just needed her first race, or there was an obvious adjustment to make, and her 2nd start with Eurton would have been equally good.