Carlos L ($97.40) leads all the way for Temperence Hill victory

Carlos L, who owned just one victory - on a sloppy track sprinting at Hawthorne - in six starts since being imported from Panama, found a fast track and 1 1/2 miles far more to his liking Saturday at Oaklawn Park as he led from start to finish and held off two late challenges for a 47-1 upset in the $150,000 Temperence Hill Stakes for older horses.

Carlos L ($97.40) – the longest shot in the field - quickly opened a daylight lead heading around the first of three turns, and easily swatted back an initial challenge to his supremacy on the clubhouse turn. Moving to the far turn, though, the pressure increased, and it looked as though he would be engulfed by Lone Rock as the field neared the top of the stretch.

But Carlos L had something left. Under Alex Canchari, Carlos L gamely outdueled Lone Rock through the stretch to win by a neck. He also held safe the requisite late bid from Tenfold, who was sent off as the 5-2 favorite but lost his 14th straight race since taking the 2019 Pimlico Special. He was a neck behind Lone Rock.

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Treasure Trove was fourth and was followed, in order, by Campaign, Plainsman, You’re to Blame, and Split the Wickets in the field of eight. Coal Truth and Moralist were scratched.

Carlos L was timed in 2:29.87 for 1 1/2 miles on the fast main track following an opening six-furlong split of 1:13.78 and mile in 1:39. That is a track record, but the distance is rarely run at Oaklawn.

The victory was the seventh in 16 starts for Carlos L, 5, a Kentucky-bred son of Hold Me Back who made his first nine starts in Panama, winning five. He is owned by Good Friends II, the second iteration of a partnership organized by former jockey Rene Douglas, whose best known runner the first time around was Private Zone, a four-time Grade 1 winner who also began his career in Panama, Douglas’s native country.

Carlos L made his first two starts in this country in the fall of 2019 at Parx and Aqueduct for Jorge Navarro, then was in Carlos David’s barn for one start at Laurel last August after Navarro was arrested last spring. Carlos L then moved to Hawthorne, where he raced twice for Hugh Robertson, scoring a victory in December in front-running fashion in an allowance sprint.

He then went to Oaklawn with Robertson’s son, Mac, where he finished last of seven in his most recent start, a one-mile optional-claimer in which he got off poorly and failed to make the top, which he showed on Saturday he much prefers, be it 6 1/2 furlongs or nearly twice that.