Pay Any Price cruises in Tamiami Handicap

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fl. - Pay Any Price continued along the road to the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint with a popular 1 1/2-length victory over Phantom Ro in Sunday’s $75,000 Tamiami Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

Despite carrying a cumbersome 130 pounds, Pay Any Price was able to turn back a strong bid from Phantom Ro in early stretch before edging away to his fourth straight victory and first under trainer Georgina Baxter.

Pay Any Price conceded 15 pounds to Phantom Ro, who appeared to stick his head in front of the odds-on favorite briefly in early stretch before tiring to finish second in his turf debut. Tenacity Zip was another head farther back in third.

Pay Any Price, an 8-year-old son of Wildcat Heir owned in partnership by Averill Racing and Matties Racing, completed five furlongs over a firm course in 55.57 seconds and paid $2.80. Pay Any Price gave Baxter the first stakes win of her training career.

“I was kind of worried when that other horse came to him in the stretch because he was coming off a bit of a layoff and was carrying a lot of weight giving some of those horses 15 pounds,” said Baxter, who is also Pay Any Price’s regular exercise rider.

“He dug in good today. He’s dug in before, but he really dug in hard today. He was training really well and he likes this track, but you always worry when they are carrying that much weight.”

Baxter said Pay Any Price would likely have one more race locally before heading to Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup.