A calmer Trickle of Gold targets Safely Kept

As a 2-year-old last season, Trickle of Gold did almost as much running around during warm-ups as she did in actual races.

By trainer Mike Gorham's count, Trickle of Gold ran off in the post parade three times and had to be scratched. She also got loose before the Blue Hen Stakes at Delaware Park, was caught, and raced anyway, finishing fourth.

"She was a little on the crazy side," Gorham said. "She was always a little nervous and on edge. We stopped on her over the winter and gave her four months off and brought her back. She matured and got over her problems with being nervous."

Now that she finally is saving her energy for the races themselves, Trickle of Gold looks awfully good. She has won her last three starts, all in allowance company at Delaware, by a collective margin of 24 3/4 lengths while stringing together Beyer Speed Figures of 96, 95, and 90.

In her most recent race, last Sunday, Trickle of Gold scored by 8 1/4 lengths, covering six furlongs in 1:10.64.

"She's starting to get her mind into the game," Gorham said. "Now, it seems like with every race this year, she gets better and better. She's more relaxed. Hopefully, she is over all of her antics."

Gorham intends to point Trickle of Gold to the Grade 3 Safely Kept, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Laurel Park on Oct. 15.

"It's late in the year for 3-year-olds and this race is restricted to 3-year-olds, so I would like to try that before running against older fillies and mares in stakes company," Gorham said.

Kelso next for Trapped Again

Another horse in Gorham's barn, the 5-year-old Trapped Again, could come back on Oct. 1 for the $100,000 Kelso Handicap, a 1 3/16-mile race at Delaware, after securing the first stakes victory of his career in last weekend's $100,000 Owners' Day Handicap at Delaware.

"He came out of the race fine," said Gorham, noting that Trapped Again has been something of a hard-luck horse this season. He was beaten a nose in a 1 1/8-mile allowance at Saratoga in early August and, Gorham said, raced against the bias while finishing third in the Topsider Breeders' Cup at Suffolk Downs on Aug. 27.

"At Suffolk, he really got all the worst of it," Gorham said. "The track had a rail and speed bias and he had the 10-hole, he got hung way out in the middle track, and he kind of lost all his chances doing that."

After getting a modest 71 Beyer for his performance at Suffolk, Trapped Again improved 32 points to a 103 Beyer in the Owners' Day.

Overall, Trapped Again has a record of 6-6-6 in 28 starts with earnings of $292,497.

"He's consistent and he runs his race every time," Gorham said. "He's just a true professional."

Apprentice becomes longshot specialist

Anna Rosie Napravnik, a 17-year-old apprentice rider, is making a regular habit of bringing home longshots at Laurel Park.

In the first five days of the fall meet, Napravnik has ridden six winners - five paying double digits. By going 6 for 22 since Sept. 7, Napravnik, a former exercise rider for trainer Richard Small, has produced a spectacular $8.14 return on a $2 investment.

Her latest longshot came Wednesday when she scored with Pleasant Dora ($42.40) in a one-mile allowance race on turf.

She has also lit up the tote board with Spring Tide ($18.60), Classy Bard ($77.20), Hedstartminer ($19.80), and He Devil ($14.20).

"I'm kind of riding a wave right now," said Napravnik, whose first career victory came on June 9 at Pimlico aboard a horse trained by Small. "I'm just trying to do the best I can and we will see how it goes."