Harrah's Hoosier Park: Sabonis overcomes trailing post, first-over trip in Dan Patch

Indiana-sired Sabonis returned to the Hoosier State for the Grade 2 $300,000 Dan Patch Stakes on Friday night at Harrah's Hoosier Park and was successful, prevailing from first-over in 1:49 2/5 with Dexter Dunn in the bike for trainer Brett Pelling.

Sabonis started from a trailing post ten and got away in the fifth position while Desperate Man (Matt Kakaley) blasted out from post three to take the lead in a 26 1/5 quarter. Race favorite Little Rocket Man (Mike Oosting) then pulled the pocket in the backstretch to hit the front before the 54 1/5 half as Sabonis vacated the pylons, tracked by Huntinthelastdolar (Andy McCarthy), Coach Stefanos (Marcus Miller), Bythemissal (Chris Page) and Charlie May (Kyle Wilfong).

Little Rocket Man maintained his position on the engine to three-quarters in 1:22 1/5, but Sabonis was an ominous presence to his outside, and despite the uncovered journey, Sabonis went by in the lane. The closers tried to rev up and chase Sabonis down, but his 27 second final kicker got him to the wire a length and a quarter ahead of a fast-finishing Bythemissal. Desperate Man was third and Captain Luke (Todd McCarthy), who elected to sit in and got shuffled, had to settle for fourth. Huntinthelastdolar came in fifth.

"It was always going to make it tricky at the start," Dunn remarked about the trailing post. "We followed through though pretty good, got a pretty good run and ended up in not a bad position. I thought I was going to be second-over but had to do it first-over, and it was a big mile by him. Honestly, my horse was traveling so strong around the last turn. I could feel he was really full of (pace). I knew it was a long way up the stretch and there'd be a couple of good ones coming at us, but to the horse's credit, and Brett (trainer Brett Pelling) had him ready, he dug deep and put in a great mile.

"When I saw him last year, he looked so impressive. Getting to sit behind him this year has been an absolute pleasure for me. If you look at the horse, he's got so much power and a great attitude. He's fun to drive."

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Pelling also co-owns Sabonis, a 4-year-old son of Tellitlikeitis, with Diamond Creek Racing. Bred by Karl Miller, Sabonis has a summary of 19-1-6 from 28 starts, has pocketed $806,316 and paid $8.40 to win as the 3-1 second choice.

"Right from the get-go I was just so happy to be around him. He's got so much class about him and he's a real gentleman," Pelling stated. "He's just one of those horses that you have a huge amount of time for. I watched all of his races here last year, and it's obvious he is better off cover and everything, but it doesn't always work out with speed racing these days. That's first-over four weeks in-a-row. I remind Dexter about it and it's not where he wanted to be tonight, but obviously the horse has got a huge amount of class. He knows what he's doing and he can overcome.

"There are a couple of invites - there's a $100,000 invite at Pocono and there's one at Scioto - but he's done such a great job. I've raced him three weeks in-a-row here. He's probably going to miss a couple of weeks, and I'll see what comes up."