Turfway: Whisked Away upsets in Likely Exchange

Whisked Away looped the field to capture her stakes debut as a 15-1 outsider Saturday in the 22nd running of the $50,000 Likely Exchange Stakes at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. Hot Hot Mama rallied to finish 1 1/4 lengths behind the winner, while La Gran Bailadora, the 1-2 favorite in a field of nine fillies and mares, was another neck back in third.

After stalking the pace from her inside post, Whisked Away was wheeled to the middle of the Polytrack surface leaving the three-eighths pole to make her winning move under jockey Luis Martinez Jr. She pulled clear in midstretch and went on to return $33.70 to win after finishing the one-mile distance in 1:40.88.

Bred and owned by Charles Deters, Whisked Away was making her second start under the care of trainer Rowena Beck after starting her career with nine starts for Bill Mott. The Likely Exhange triumph followed a dead-heat victory in a Turfway sprint allowance in December in her only prior start for Beck. The win was the fourth from 11 overall starts for Whisked Away, a 6-year-old Victory Gallop mare.

The Likely Exchange was the first time Beck has ever run a horse in a stakes race during a training career that began in 2005. Whisked Away "got an excellent ride" from Martinez, said Beck, adding the race set up "pretty much exactly" the way she wanted it.

La Gran Bailadora, the defending champion in the Likely Exchange and a five-time winner at Turfway, trailed the field for much of the way before making a belated run under leading jockey Victor Lebron.

The $2 exacta (1-3) paid $160, the $1 trifecta (1-3-4) paid $133.90, and the 10-cent superfecta (1-3-4-11) paid $129.50.

* Earlier Saturday, apprentice rider Marcelino Torres notched his first career victory when he guided Luckie Chuckie to win the fifth race. The win came in just the second career mount for Torres, a 23-year-old native of Guerrero, Mexico.