Karlsson leads Young Guns to victory
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Already listed on Inez Karlsson’s rèsumé are “amateur Swedish boxer” and “Eclipse award finalist.” Ms. Karlsson might also add “comedian."
Karlsson piloted pacesetting Saint Leon in race 5 on Friday evening at Arlington, the jockey challenge between the Young Guns and the Cagey Veterans, as Arlington had billed the race. Chasing here were retired jock Earlie Fires and stalking Bobby Sands.
At the three-eighths, I looked back and I could see Earlie coming,” Karlsson said. “He was blowing so hard, I didn’t know if it was the horse or him.”
That may well have been the story of the event, as the Young Guns amassed 25 points by finishing first, third, fourth, sixth, and 10th in the race. The Cagey Veterans, Fires, Mark Guidry, Patty Cooksey, Zoe Cadman, and Otto Thorwarth, occupied the other spots, earning 14 points in the placing system used to determine the winning team. Bettors who played the Young Guns in the head-to-head wager were rewarded with a $2.20 win payout.
The event lost two top veterans when Gary Stevens, who was injured last week in a Saratoga training spill, and Jean-Luc Samyn did not participate.
Marsh Side ready to run - somewhere
The connections of Marsh Side waited and waited, watching and watching the weather. Their horse had been shipped to Saratoga from Southern California, but was scheduled to run this weekend either in the Sky Classic at Woodbine or the Arlington Million. The mile and a half at Woodbine is a better distance for Marsh Side, but trainer Neil Drysdale also was looking for rain and softer going.
“He’s better on soft ground, where some of the others aren’t as good,” Drysdale said.
The plane from New York to Chicago left first-thing Wednesday morning, and at the time, local forecasters were calling for only a slim chance of rain here Friday into Saturday. Meanwhile, it had rained plenty at Woodbine last weekend, and that is where Marsh Side ended up this week, scratched from the Arlington Million.
So much for the long-range Chicago forecast. Showers already had come to Arlington late Friday afternoon, and the radar to the west and north of the track was lit up with storms. Now, the forecast calls for possibly as much as an inch of rain by early tomorrow afternoon, an amount that would drastically alter the nature of the local lawn. Stay tuned.
Leparoux picks up mount on Acoma
When Rainbow View was scratched Thursday from the Beverly D. it left jockey Julien Leparoux without a mount for the race – but not for long. Trainer David Carroll had named Jesus Castanon to ride Acoma in the race, but when Leparoux came open, Carroll tabbed him to ride Acoma. Leparoux rode Acoma much of 2009, but it was actually Castanon aboard for her most recent win, a narrow victory last fall in the Cardinal Handicap.