Purple Storm upsets stablemate in Canadian Juvenile

Purple Storm upset his heavily favored stablemate Smarty River Pants in the $75,000 Canadian Juvenile at Century Downs Sunday. The British Columbia-bred son of Storm Victory paid $16.30 and posted a final time of 1:31.86 in the 7 1/2-furlong race for 2-year-olds.

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With Rico Walcott aboard, Purple Storm broke sharply from the inside post, stalked the early pace, moved into serious contention on the stretch turn, and when Smarty River Pants drifted out turning for home he made a strong move from along the rail to get up in the last few strides to win by a half-length. Smarty River Pants sat outside of Purple Storm early and then moved outside to take over the lead from Thatsafactjack just past the half-mile call. He looked like the winner midstretch, but hung late. Aleutian Harbour came from last to finish third.

Purple Storm and Smarty River Pants, who lost for the first time, are trained by Tim Rycroft and owned by Riversedge Racing Stables.

Walcott also won the last race with Got My Mo which gave him six wins on the 12-race closing day card. Thoroughbreds will return next year at the newly built Century Mile in late April. Horses galloped over the one-mile track for the first time on Friday. It is located near the Edmonton airport and takes the place of Northlands Park which closed for good after holding its final Standardbred card on Saturday.