Spring Included prevails in Spring Fever
Spring Included became a stakes winner on Saturday, when she dueled and went on to a 1 3/4-length win over Heykittykittykitty in the $100,000 Spring Fever at Oaklawn Park.
Mary RampelliniFeb 21, 2015
Spring Included became a stakes winner on Saturday, when she dueled and went on to a 1 3/4-length win over Heykittykittykitty in the $100,000 Spring Fever at Oaklawn Park.
Florent Geroux, riding Chocolate Ride, kept waiting for the expected pacesetter, Skyring, to pass him and take the lead. He never came, and Chocolate Ride never relinquished his early lead, wiring the Grade 3, $125,000 Fair Grounds Handicap in his stakes debut.
Why Two, sent off the heavy 3-10 favorite despite facing winners for the first time, routing for the first time, shipping for the first time, facing stakes foes for the first time, and being stuck with the worst post with a far-outside draw, was good enough to overcome all that and capture Saturday’s $75,000 Turf Paradise Derby.
Whooosh! That approximates the sound multiple Eclipse Award winner Main Sequence made when unleashing his tremendous turn of foot from the top of the stretch to the wire to register a well-measured three-quarter-length victory over the hard-luck Twilight Eclipse in Saturday’s $200,000 Mac Diarmida at Gulfstream Park.
Long On Value surged to the front turning for home before turning back the favored Jack Milton and going on to a 10-1 upset Saturday in the 53rd running of the Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf at Gulfstream Park.
Charging down the middle of the racing strip under a strong ride by Brian Pedroza, 16-1 shot You Bought Her ran down favored R Free Roll in the closing strides to capture the $50,000 Minaret Stakes by a half-length Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
Eden Prairie was run down late by the Mike Stidham-trained Notte d’Oro last month in the Marie Krantz Stakes here at Fair Grounds, but on Saturday in the $60,000 Bayou Stakes, it was Eden Prairie who ran down a Stidham horse, catching the pacesetting Istanford at the furlong pole and going on to a 1 1/2-length victory.
When a new strategy was put to the test on Saturday in the Grade 2, $200,000 Davona Dale Stakes, Ekati’s Phaeton responded with a front-running, 26-1 upset over 12 other 3-year-old fillies.
Delaunay has been the king of Fair Grounds dirt sprints, but he was dethroned Saturday by Bet Seattle in the $56,400 Duncan Kenner Stakes.
C. Zee may not have gotten the trip that trainer Stanley Gold drew up on the chalkboard. But the hard-knocking speedster was good enough to wear down the Grade 1-placed Happy My Way to register a convincing 2 3/4-length victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint.