Calibrate ($62.60) surprises with Temperence Hill triumph
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HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Calibrate made his first start at a marathon distance on Sunday and won the $150,000 Temperence Hill at 30-1 at Oaklawn Park.
He closed for a length win over comebacking favorite Lone Rock, while it was another three-quarters of a length back in third to Warrant.
Calibrate ($62.60) covered the 1 1/2 miles for 4-year-olds and up in 2:31.79.
Trainer Coty Rosin said the horse’s owner, Josh Engel, asked him if he wanted to try Calibrate at the three-turn distance. The men are friends.
“I said, ‘Why not?’” Rosin recalled in a post-race interview conducted by Oaklawn. “He ran well, beyond expectations.”
Calibrate settled in third behind Warrant, who set the pace with Lone Rock, who was making his first start in eight months, prompting in second. Warrant took the field through an opening quarter in 24.61 seconds, a half-mile in 49.47, six furlongs in 1:14.53, a mile in 1:40.63, and a 1 1/4 miles in 2:06.11. Lone Rock moved to the lead in the stretch, as Calibrate came charging down the outside to win on a fast track, in 2:31.79.
Francisco Arrieta was aboard the 5-year-old son of Distorted Humor.
“Man, I’m so happy because I won that race,” Arrieta told the publicity department at Oaklawn. “When I was behind the gate, I thanked God because I was riding in this kind of race, a mile and a half. It’s just pretty fun. My horse took a good jump and relaxed. At the three-eighths pole, I saw they were trying to draw away. I had a lot of horse and when I moved, he responded to me.”
Calibrate galloped out strongly following the race Sunday.
He came into the Temperence Hill off a win in an overnight handicap at a mile at Will Rogers Downs. Calibrate has now won 6 of 24 starts for earnings of $350,740.
The Temperence Hill continued the Racing Festival of the South, which features major stakes at Oaklawn throughout the month of April. The track will race Friday and Saturday and will be closed Sunday in observance of Easter.
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