Crewman wins Forego Stakes after long inquiry

Crewman withstood the rallies of several foes in Saturday night’s $50,000 Forego at Turfway Park, and then survived two claims of foul from riders on losing horses alleging interference from his drifting out in the stretch, to notch the first stakes win of his 28-race career.

Stewards looked into the incident in which the jockeys claimed foul – coming in late stretch – for more than five minutes following the race but made no change to the order of finish.

The winner, a 6-year-old gelded son of Candy Ride, capitalized from five scratches, one of whom was morning-line favorite The Great War, which removed quality from the Forego along with speed. This allowed him to gain a valuable forward position early, which gave him an advantage over his late-closing rivals. And he proved impossible to catch, lasting for a three-quarter-length victory over Hollywood Talent, with Snow Leopard and Dac running noses apart when a head behind the runner-up in third and fourth.

Owned by Dundalk 5 LLC and trained by Dee Poulos, Crewman paid $17. He raced 6 1/2 furlongs on Turfway’s Polytrack under Jack Gilligan in 1:15.41.

The late-running Dac, backed to 8-5 favoritism after winning the Prairie Bayou Stakes on Dec. 17 at Turfway at 1 1/16 miles, seemed within striking range early but ran into traffic problems leaving the far turn and didn’t have the late acceleration to hit the board after having to steady behind Crewman in the stretch.