Colonial: Saay Mi Name surprises

If the bettors were to be believed, Saay Mi Name was supposed to offer scant challenge to Abbondanza in the $60,000 Chesapeake at Colonial Downs, perhaps keeping the favorite company for a half-mile before gracefully fading through the pack.

It didn't work out that way.

Saay Mi Name, 6-1 in the five-horse field, dueled 6-5 favorite Abbondanza into defeat and held off Founding Chairman by 1 3/4 lengths to win the six-furlong stakes under Christopher VanHassel. Abbondanza faded to third.

Wayne Bailey owns and trains Saay Mi Name, a 5-year-old Not for Love gelding whose last victory had come five starts back in a Philadelphia Park allowance race.

On Saturday, Saay Mi Name zipped through fractions of 22.33 seconds, 44.64, and 56.30, and finished in 1:08.87. He paid $14.40.

* Partners Due was coming out of a Grade 3 stakes. Her opponents in the $40,000 Sissy Woolums Memorial were coming out of allowance races or Virginia-bred stakes. That class difference showed on the track when Partners Due romped to a 5 1/4-length win in the seven-furlong restricted stakes.

Owned by Ghost Breeding and trained by Michael Trombetta, Partners Due covered the distance in 1:23.82 under Horatio Karamanos. She paid $2.80.

Rumbling Girl finished second, with Plumpish third.