Nobals fends off challengers to win William Garrett Handicap
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Nobals was all guts winning the $100,000 William Garrett Handicap on Friday at Horseshoe Indianapolis.
After going a pressured quarter-mile in 21.75 seconds, Nobals turned back stretch bids from Just Might and Charcoal to win the Garrett by 1 1/4 lengths. Veteran jockey E.T. Baird, rarely seen the last several months, was in the saddle for trainer Larry Rivelli and Vince Foglia’s Patricia’s Hope.
Coming off a sharp win two months ago in the Grade 2 Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill, Nobals was favored at 4-5 and paid $3.80, clocking 57.83 for five furlongs on the firm grass course. Charcoal ran down Just Might to finish second.
Nobals won his fifth stakes race and now has eight wins from 15 starts, Breaking a half-beat slow, the gelding quickly got into stride to take the lead away from Just Might. Shiver Me Timbers came up to press the pace but could not match stride past the quarter pole and checked in fourth.
Bred in Kentucky by John Chandler, Nobals is a son of Noble Mission and Pearly Blue, by Empire Maker.
One race after Nobals scored his front-running victory, Love and Money’s sustained rally from the rear of the field carried her to the narrowest of wins in the $100,000 Clarksville Handicap, another turf sprint, this one restricted to fillies and mares.
Love and Money was an unlikely candidate for a last-to-first move. Typically a front-running type, she lurched right breaking from post 1, hitting the side of the gate and dropping to the tail of the field. Still last of nine going into the turn, Love and Money commenced a powerful outside bid under Joseph Ramos that carried her into contention by the quarter pole. Five paths wide into the stretch, Love and Money had one more burst after changing leads at the furlong grounds, just enough to nip Goin Good at the wire.
Goin Good led ever so briefly after working hard to get past 42-1 pacesetter Lady Goldstart, who lost third on the line to an even longer price, 88-1 Habuiah, who came flying up the fence. Love and Money ($6) was timed in 58.24 with just three-quarters of a length separating the top four at the finish.
Cherie DeVaux trains Love and Money for Lael Stables, the lightly raced 5-year-old winning for the fourth time in 10 outings. Bred by Millennium Farms and the More and Ready Syndicate, Love and Money is by More Than Ready out of Witchy One, by Smart Strike.
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