Bomb wins Hallowed Dreams's race

NEW ORLEANS - My Brents Diamond has been chasing Hallowed Dreams for a year. This time, Hallowed Dreams was nowhere to be found, and longshot My Brents Diamond ran down Kettle Man in the stretch to win the $100,000 Louisiana Champions Day Sprint* (click here for chart) by three-quarters of a length.

Score one for the "other" Louisiana-bred filly sprinter.

"Really, we were just running for place money," said Jerry Quinn, who trains My Brents Diamond for owner Mike Meeks. "We didn't think we'd beat Hallowed Dreams."

That perspective was easy to understand. My Brents Diamond had faced Hallowed Dreams three times in the last year and had never come close to her.

The Sprint was billed as a showdown between Hallowed Dreams and Kettle Man, the dominant sprinter this summer at Louisiana Downs. But the showdown melted away when Hallowed Dreams - obviously drained from her race here only a week ago, winning the A.B. Leggio Handicap - finished ninth in a field of 10 as the $1.10-to-1 favorite.

The Sprint did not play out the way it appeared on paper. Neither Hallowed Dreams, nor Kettle Man, nor Bet Me Best, the expected front-runners, raced on the lead, yet the pace in the sprint was fast. Broadway Show and Extra Heavenly dueled through a quarter-mile in 21.59 seconds and half-mile in 44.87 seconds. Kettle Man made a strong run on the far turn and made the lead at the top of the stretch, but was collared by My Brents Diamond in midstretch.

My Brents Diamond typically runs on or near the lead, but the plan this day was to take back and hope for the best. "We really didn't want her on the lead today," Quinn said.

Jockey Eddie Martin broke the filly sharply from the rail and stayed inside until the stretch. "I just wanted them to use their horses up to clear me and that's exactly what happened," he said.

My Brents Diamond, who paid $42.80 to win, tied a stakes record in the Sprint, running six furlongs in 1:09.94. Kettle Man finished three lengths in front of the show horse, Zarb's Luck.

For Quinn, a former assistant to Elliott Walden, it was his first stakes win since he set up his own stable six months ago.

Louisiana Classic Day Sprint chart*

* Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.