Ocala Training Center: Desormeaux, Ward team up for two OBS stakes victories

Here’s Johnny prevailed in a three-horse photo in the colts and geldings division of the $100,000 OBS Championship, giving jockey Kent Desormeaux and trainer Wesley Ward their second stakes victory of Tuesday’s four-stakes program at the Ocala Training Center in Ocala, Fla.

All four Thoroughbred races on the five-race card were for 3-year-olds who went through the sales ring at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.

In a first for Ocala, parimutuel wagering was conducted for on-track patrons on the first two races of the card, a 220-yard race for Quarter Horses and the fillies division of the OBS Sprint. Total handle, which included a daily double and exactas, was $19,484.

Here’s Johnny, owned by Ice Wine Stable, was part of four horses tightly bunched during the stretch run of the 1 1/16-mile OBS Championship. He outfinished second-time starter Canzoni, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by 2013 Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano, by a nose with East Hall a neck behind Canzoni in third.

Here’s Johnny, 3 for 7 lifetime, covered the distance on the synthetic SafeTrack surface labeled wet-fast in 1:45.80. He won his only other non-turf start on Keeneland’s Polytrack in early October.

In the other stakes:

Naughty Holiday, making her first start since winning an off-the-turf one-mile maiden race at Gulfstream Park in late September, drew clear under Castellano in deep stretch to win the fillies division of the $100,000 OBS Championship at 1 1/16 miles. Trained by David Fawkes for William McCarty, Naughty Holiday completed the distance in 1:46.60. She finished 1 1/2 lengths in front of runner-up Babe’s Ruler, a Tampa Bay Downs-based filly who was coming off a maiden win on turf

Rusiana ($4.80), returning to a sprint on a synthetic surface after an unsuccessful experiment going two turns on turf last November, scored by 1 3/4 lengths under Desormeaux in the fillies division of the $50,000 OBS Sprint. Trained by Ward for Mark Dodson, Rusiana won her only previous non-turf start sprinting six furlongs on Keeneland’s Polytrack by 4 ¼ lengths in October. She ran six furlongs Tuesday in 1:10.80.

Prudhoe Bay rallied from fourth along the rail to get up by a neck over Breitling Flyer in the colts and geldings division of the $50,000 OBS Sprint. Ridden by Paco Lopez for trainer Ed Plesa Jr. and owner-breeder Rustlewood Farm, Prudhoe Bay ran six furlongs in 1:10 flat. He had won his career debut sprinting at Gulfstream Park in mid-November before flashing speed and fading going a mile in his second lifetime start.