Proceed Bee goes all the way at Prairie Meadows

ALTOONA, Iowa - Proceed Bee stretched his win streak to three by winning the $100,000 Prairie Meadows Handicap on Saturday. The 1 1/4-mile handicap went with five starters after the scratch of Country Flavor because of a licensing issue.

Proceed Bee went off as the second choice at 7-5 off victories in an allowance race at Indiana Downs, and the Illinois Owners Stakes at Arlington Park. He took the lead from the gate and went through the early fractions in a pedestrian 24.72, 49.69, 1:14.89, and 1:39.03.

"He was going slow and very comfortably," said jockey Michael Baze.

The slow trip had the field bunched up within a couple of lengths of each other through six furlongs. Red Lead, favored at 4-5, pressed the pace along the outside of Proceed Bee through the mile before fading to fourth. Proceed Bee was all out to hold off Going Ballistic, who closed within a neck of the winner just before the wire. Proceed Bee finished the 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.96

"He's got the physical body and the ability, he's just not always there mentally," said Scott Becker, who trains Proceed Bee for owner William Stiritz. "That's the only thing keeping him from the next level."

Becker said that Proceed Bee, a 4-year-old gelding by Bernstein, could run in the Washington Park Handicap at Arlington Park on Sept. 4.