Caramori inflicts Payne on rivals in Wednesday allowance
Caio Caramori is having the best season of his nascent training career and looks poised to notch his first Colonial Downs win in the featured third race Wednesday.
Caramori entered two horses in this six-furlong dirt race open to third-level allowance horses or $75,000 claimers – Payne and Pico d’Oro. Both are owned by George Sharp.
Payne exits a second-place finish May 30 at Lone Star in the $100,000 Speightstown Sprint, beaten by the sharp It Makes Sense. Fifth in the race was Macron, who returned to win the $100,000 Iowa Sprint on Friday, earning a 100 Beyer Speed Figure. Sharp and Caramori claimed Payne for $62,500 in April 2021 and the 7-year-old gelding has turned in two performances this form cycle that make him a worthy favorite over five rivals. Reylu Gutierrez comes in to take the mount on Payne.
County Final, who races with blinkers off, could prove the speed of the race for trainer Steve Asmussen, who trains Macron. Asmussen has never before stabled at Colonial Downs but took a dozen stalls for this meet, according to racing secretary Allison De Luca.
Rail-drawn Arthur’s Hope has run six times in 2022 and his overall form suggests he can contend, but the 8-year-old gelding brings an 18-race losing streak into the Wednesday feature.
As for Caramori, he’s 0 for 3 with Colonial starters, but his Kentucky-based operation has picked up momentum this year. The 36-year-old is the son of trainer and veterinarian Eduardo Caramori, who moved to the U.S. from Brazil in 1991. Caio Caramori had 57 runners from 2015 to 2020 but went out on his own in earnest during 2021, winning 12 races from 104 runners. Already this season he has nine winners from 55 starters, and Payne can add another to his ledger.
A more interesting contest Wednesday at Colonial is race 7, a 2-year-old maiden special weight turf sprint that drew a dozen entrants who have been training all over the East Coast and the Midwest. Mom’s Town debuts for trainer Larry Rivelli, whose record with 2-year-old first-timers is off-the-charts strong, while Wide West has perhaps the field’s best pedigree, by Frankel and out of the Speightstown mare Deer Valley.