Diamond King battles for Heft Stakes victory

Diamond King ran a powerful race to take the $100,000 Heft Stakes on Saturday at Laurel Park, putting away A Different Style on the lead, then coming back on after being passed by Devine Entry.

The Heft, named for the late Maryland horse owner Arnold Heft, was Diamond King's first race since the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs, a race in which he clipped heels entering the first turn and unseated jockey Frankie Pennington.

With Pennington back aboard Saturday, 6-5 favorite Diamond King engaged for the early lead inside 9-5 A Different Style. The two set quick splits of 22.31 and 45.90 in the seven-furlong race while well ahead of the other four starters.

The trailing runners steadily closed the gap on the far turn and Devine Entry took the lead three wide entering the stretch, just as Diamond King got the better of A Different Style. Devine Entry opened up maybe a length advantage but Diamond King dug in gamely and steadily came on again, eventually scoring by 1 1/2 lengths while going away at the finish.

"He was going fairly easy on the lead and was just playing with that other horse," Pennington said. "Once he saw the 3 horse go by, he came running."

Diamond King paid $4.60 and was timed over a fast track in 1:24.45 for trainer Butch Reid Jr. and owners Chuck Zacney and LC Racing.

"He's always been a very competitive horse regardless of who you put him in with," Reid said of his colt's performance.

Diamond King, a $235,000 2-year-old purchase, won the first two starts of his career and is now 3 for 4. Reid said he was unsure where Diamond King would run next but that he planned to stretch the son of Quality Road out around two turns, something he originally attempted in the Kentucky Jockey Club.

Big Bella Brown finished third, eight lengths behind Devine Entry. A Different Style was fourth, a head farther back.

Whirlin Curlin, who had won stakes in his prior two starts, lacked a closing response in the stretch and finished fifth, a half-length behind a Different Style.

Gin Talking: Strategic Dreams now 3 for 4

Strategic Dreams improved her record to three wins from four starts with a going-away victory in the $100,000 Gin Talking Stakes.

A daughter of Archarcharch trained by Rudy Rodriguez, Strategic Dreams rallied toward the leader outside horses on the far turn after breaking from post 10, and then proved clearly best in the stretch under jockey Feargal Lynch to score by 1 3/4 lengths.

"We were drawn very wide and just had to wait for the race to develop, then she went right by them," Lynch said.

Strategic Dreams paid $6.20 in the 10-horse field and covered seven furlongs in 1:24.92.

Enrage rallied to be second best, 4 1/4 lengths in front of third-place Vertrazzo, who raced forwardly throughout.

Vertrazzo fell after the finish, unseating rider Dana Whitney. Neither horse nor rider was badly hurt, according to track officials.

Following the Gin Talking, the final three races of the card were canceled due to deteriorating track conditions. Renaissance Rosie, the runner-up in race 5, also fell during the gallop-out of her race.

Limited View, the 8-5 Gin Talking favorite, broke outward bumping with Vertrazzo, and did not get away sharply. She moved up to a contending position along the inside but had little left for the final quarter-mile and tired to finish ninth.