Turfway Park: Grand Daddy takes Forego by a neck

Grand Daddy, ridden by Julio Felix, rallied from far back to prevail narrowly in a three-horse photo Saturday in the $50,000 Forego Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky.

With an eighth-mile to go in the 6 1/2-furlong Polytrack race, the front-runners were backing up while three horses were coming on to take command: Grand Daddy, Tend, and Matthewsburg. That's the way they finished, with Grand Daddy, widest of all, having a neck margin on Tend at the wire, with Matthewsburg, the 5-2 favorite, another neck back in a field of 12 older horses.

Grand Daddy, a 6-year-old chestnut horse by Johannesburg, is trained by Tommy Drury for the Pattons Creek Farm. He returned $19.60 as sixth choice after finishing in 1:17.83.

Grand Daddy had finished second in a $25,000 claiming race two starts back before capturing a Dec. 23 allowance at Turfway to earn a shot at the Forego from Drury, who is based at the Skylight training center just east of Louisville. Interestingly, from 22 career starts, Grand Daddy has raced in stakes three times - and every time it was the Forego at Turfway, running second in 2010, fourth in 2011, and now winning the 2012 renewal. The horse earned $28,830 with his eighth lifetime win to push his bankroll to $151,669.